Plan Your Plate! Healthy Eating Tips for Your Next Get-Together.

Hi friends! Fall is here and it brings so many things that I love, including lots of get-togethers for football parties, holiday parties - and for us our anniversary and our daughter’s birthday. It’s basically one big party all season, which is both wonderfully fun and totally exhausting lol. 

Fall also brings with it so many cozy flavors and a lot of concentration on delicious foods. This combo of tons of social events and get-togethers plus tons of pumpkin-spice-laden treats can leave us feeling a little stressed about making healthy eating choices. 

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Fall!! It truly is my favorite season.  As an enneagram 9, it’s hard for me to choose a favorite in anything, but I love fall so much that it’s the obvious choice. 

I know so many other people who love all things fall too, but I also know that fall can bring with it some stress or maybe even worry about making healthy eating choices. Fall leads right into the holidays and for anyone who is trying to make health-conscious decisions or may be worried about their weight, there seems to be a little nagging voice in our heads that’s a little stressed out about all of the food. 

So today, I want to give you a few practical tips to quiet those nagging thoughts and help give you confidence in making healthy choices while still completely enjoying the season. 

Adjust your expectations 

We have to live in reality, friends. How often do we go to a party or some kind of holiday get-together thinking we just won’t eat anything or we’ll just pass on the dessert? First of all, that sounds miserable, doesn’t it? Secondly, it’s hardly realistic for most of us! The reality is that dessert, snacks, and whatever else that you are thinking of avoiding will be there, and you’re going to want to eat it, and that’s okay. So let’s just adjust our expectations, that avoidance isn’t really realistic in most cases and it’s probably not the best idea anyway. 

Decide what a “healthy choice” means for you. 

This doesn’t always look the same for everyone and it doesn’t look the same in every season. Spend a little time thinking about what foods work best for your body, what makes you feel bad, and what foods you love and can’t wait to enjoy. For some people, this may look like not eating certain foods, and for some this may mean eating healthy portions of everything! Don’t follow the crowd on this. Be intentional (but remember those realistic expectations). 

Quit with the guilt. 

 We need to be conscious of unhealthy patterns when it comes to eating - and I’m not at all talking about food. I’m talking about unhealthy patterns when it comes to our mindset. One of the most common ones is feeling guilty when we eat something that feels indulgent or something that may not be the most nutritious. I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve worked with who find themselves caught up in this pattern of eating something that they’ve deemed “bad” and then spend the night or next day feeling guilty about it and sometimes even punishing themselves or trying to “make up for it” with extra long workouts or by barely eating anything the next day. There are not any bad foods. Food is amoral. It is both physically and mentally unhealthy for us to assign morality to certain foods and immorality to others and it has led to some really deep rooted issues with food in our society. So when you catch yourself feeling guilty or saying something like “I’m going to have walk off this dinner” or “run an extra mile tomorrow because of this dessert” try to change that narrative to something like “I’m thankful that I get to enjoy this meal”. Also, one more thing on this - remember that while food is fuel for our bodies, there is also an emotional component to food that is connected with the pleasure centers in our brain - and that’s a gift. God didn’t have to give us taste buds or allow us to enjoy our food, but He did, so let’s not rob ourselves of that. 

Always Balance It Out (carb + protein + fat)  

Remember that one of the major factors supporting your health is blood sugar balance, so make that a priority over counting calories or another arbitrary focus. Some examples of how this may look at a party: choose hummus and guac with chips; add some chicken or a few meatballs to your plate along with all of those starchy carbs; when it’s time for dessert, add some high-quality half-and-half or higher protein nut milk to your coffee, or add a handful of nuts to your plate along with the brownies. This starts with making sure that you are familiar with some good protein and healthy fat options that you enjoy. Download my Foods that Heal List for some ideas - also a new resource for this coming soon!) 

Support Your Digestion

This is important all of the time, but especially so when we’re eating different foods or foods that are very rich and can cause some digestive upset. Try to eat your meals when you’re seated, calm, and can really enjoy your food. When we’re hyped up or upset, we often have a lot of adrenaline and stress hormones pumping through our bodies which makes digestion and nutrient absorption, so when possible eat at a more calm time in the get-together. Also, avoid grazing throughout the entire event. Our bodies digest best when we have at least 90 minutes in-between eating, so enjoy your meal and then give your gut a break. This will help to avoid or reduce unwanted symptoms like bloating. 

Bring an Alternative 

Bring something that you know you enjoy and will make you feel good. Ideally, something with protein or nutritious ingredients. One way to be sure there are foods there that you feel good about eating is to bring them yourself. This is especially important for those with food allergies or sensitivities. 

I hope these tips help you enjoy this season to the fullest while still making decisions that prioritize your health!

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Not Seeing Results with Your Health Goals? This Could Be Why!

Hi friends! It’s the end of February and a lot of us are feeling 1 of 2 ways with our new year’s health goals - either confident and excited to keep going or frustrated and ready to call it quits. In this episode, I’m sharing some of the most common reasons that we tend to hit a wall this time of year and stop seeing the results that we think we should be seeing in our health - whether that’s weight loss or another health factor we are wanting to improve. I think this is going to be super practical and helpful for you, so let’s get into it! 

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While there are a lot of factors that can go into why we may feel that way, I have found that when people are feeling stuck or frustrated with a lack of results, there are usually some common culprits. So before you call it quits, evaluate how you’re doing in these 5 areas. 

Not enough quality sleep

Most of us don’t get enough sleep. We prioritize productivity over rest and we’re damaging our health. The recommendation is 7-9 hours of sleep and 2 hours of deep sleep (most of this happens before midnight). So really get intentional about your sleep - track it (Apple watch / Oura ring, Garmin smartwatch), set some hard boundaries, etc. (more ideas for optimizing sleep in episodes 29 and 69). 

Inadequate calorie/protein intake

Often when we think about weight loss or health goals, we think about eating less (which occasionally may be warranted) but I’ve found the opposite to be true more often than not. So many times when someone is experiencing difficulty losing weight or regulating blood sugar, healing their hormones, etc. - it’s because they aren’t eating enough. Not enough calories, or not often enough throughout the day, or even both! It’s also very common for women to not eat enough protein. 

I’m not a proponent of counting calories because I think we set ourselves up for an unhealthy obsession with our bodies and an unhealthy relationship with food by doing that; however, having said that sometimes it can be helpful to track for a couple of days (ONLY) just to gauge how much food we’re getting. Somewhere along the way, we’ve adopted this mindset that we should only be eating 1200 calories a day or something ridiculous, and for 99% of us, that is way under what our bodies need to actually function. Now, this is different for everyone, and I don’t want you to mishear what I’m saying and think that I’m saying that weight loss is the most important goal or that it’s as simple as kcals in/out because if you know me or have been around here for a while, you know that I don’t teach that at all. BUT I do believe that understanding the science behind how our bodies use food as energy is helpful. Your body needs a certain amount of calories to just basically function - you can find out this amount by using a BMR calculator. It will show you the number of kcals you need to just sit still and breathe. s the algorithm explains, this energy will be used only to maintain vital organs, which include the heart, lungs, kidneys, nervous system, intestines, liver, lungs, sex organs, muscles, and skin. For most people, upwards of 70% of the total energy burned each day is used for upkeep.

If you want energy to move or do anything at all you will need more and the calculator will base that on how active you are, if you’re pregnant, nursing, etc. Again, this isn’t as simple as this math equation, but it does provide a basic frame of understanding and supports the idea that major calorie restriction is not a good idea.

It’s also super common to not have enough intake of protein and have too high of an intake of either simple carbs or fats. A really simple rule of thumb here is to make sure that you’re not having any meal or snack that is just a carb (or just a protein, for that matter). The inclusion of all three macronutrients is important for stable blood sugar and metabolism. Somewhere around 25-30g protein per meal is a good goal and using the palm of your hand as a guide is a super easy, sustainable way to track this.

Too much or too little exercise

Another common issue I see often when someone isn’t seeing the progress that they want is an imbalance in their physical activity - either too much/too intense exercise or too little exercise. 

Regularly moving our bodies for somewhere between 15-45 minutes daily supports the function of our bodies in so many ways! It helps our bodies manage stress levels, helps promote deep sleep, aids in digestion and good gut motility, reduces chronic inflammation levels, increases oxygen, and therefore healing, to the body, helps with cognitive ability, supports stable hormones, and so much more. It’s a vital component of a healthy lifestyle! 

On the flip side, overtraining or doing too intense of a workout, or even too long of an intense workout can have some of the opposite effects leaving us feeling more exhausted and depleted; it can also raise inflammation levels, have a draining effect on our adrenal health and therefore hormone health, lead to digestive issues including bloating and constipation, add to insomnia, and when paired with a too restrictive way of eating, leave our bodies starving for energy. 

As with most things, there is a sweet spot for exercise, especially for women. 

Misaligned Mindset and Goals

I’ve talked about this a lot because this is one of the most common issues that I see and one that most of us simply overlook. I actually have a guest interview episode all about this that comes out in a couple of weeks, so I’m not going to go super deep into this, but I do want to give you a couple of things to think about. 

When we are setting goals from a place of negative feelings or feelings of shame about our bodies, we are likely keeping ourselves stuck right where we are. Those feelings may motivate you for a day or two, but most of the time they are going to lead you to feel like giving up or crashing on the couch instead of taking proactive steps to improve your health. 

However, if we can switch our mindset to setting goals tied to something we love or a dream we have for the future, we are much more likely to feel motivated to take those action steps. 

Behavior is driven by our mindset, not the other way around. 

There’s so much more to be said on this topic and as I said, I actually have an entire guest interview about this coming up in the next episode, so make sure you are subscribed and keep a lookout for that. 

I also have a youtube video dedicated to a healthy mindset and goal setting that you can watch. I’ll link that in the show notes so that you can get to it easily. It’s actually a clip from my Move Forward, Feel Better course and dives much more in-depth into how we can align our mindsets with the truth of who God made us to be. I truly believe that this is the missing piece for so many women who find themselves stuck in a cycle of dieting and frustration with their bodies. 

Have any of these common issues resonated with you? If so, I hope that you have found this episode helpful and it has given you some ideas to think through. The good news is that in each of these examples, we can easily make changes to address what’s going on. I encourage you to spend some time evaluating these areas of your lifestyle and brainstorming 2-3 very achievable steps that you can take to move forward. You’re doing a great job, friend! Just by taking the time to listen to this episode and give intentional thought to your health, you are moving forward, even if it doesn’t feel like it! 

My Simple Method for Meal Planning

Hi friends! In today’s episode, we are talking about meal planning. There are many different methods and ways to meal plan, so this is not necessarily a “how-to” or a list of things you “should” do, this is just me sharing how I do things in this current season of life that I am in. I’ve had other podcast episodes about meal planning - tips for meal planning, the importance of it, etc., and even since recording those episodes, things in my life have changed and I don’t do things exactly the way that I did then. That’s just normal and a part of life. Everyone has to learn how to shift how they do things based on the season that they’re in. So today I’m sharing what is currently working for me and I hope that it gives you new inspiration or ideas, as well as give you permission to meal plan in a way that best serves you. 

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A little something you may or may not know about me, depending on how long you’ve been around the podcast, is that I am an Enneagram 9w1. (If you don’t know what that is it’s a personality test that I often reference because I think it’s super helpful.) So, that basically means my mind is a complicated, sometimes contradictory place. So I love all things organizing, order, planning, ideas, and future, but I don’t always love executing said plans, and I’m not very good at motivating myself to carry out a plan that I’m not “feeling” in the moment. I also don’t like chaos or feeling stressed about what we’re having for dinner, regretting an impulse choice, etc. (like I said, it’s complicated). So, as you can imagine, meal planning is extremely important, for me. I have tried many times to go without some kind of meal plan in place for the week and it always turns out badly. I most often end up stressed, and really frustrated with myself for not just taking the time to have a plan in place, get groceries, and get ahead of things rather than feeling like I’m constantly playing catch-up or regretting my choices. You may have a totally different personality and be absolutely fine to just go with the flow and not really need a plan in place, but that is most certainly not me. Also, from my experience working with clients, it seems that most people do better with some kind of plan in place, especially if they’re trying to be intentional about what they are eating.

There isn’t one certain way that is “right” when it comes to planning meals for yourself or your family, and there are tons of different methods that are great! Depending on your personality, the season of life you’re in, and your schedule, you may find some methods more helpful than others. I encourage you to be open to trying new ways of doing things, as well as willing to change methods of meal planning if what you have been doing is no longer serving you. 

For example, I have previously used methods where I meal plan and grocery shop two weeks at a time, or even a month at a time, but in my current season of life, I do not have the mental capacity or time to devote to doing that. Currently, I only plan meals about a week at a time, and instead of using a particular system or journal like I did before, I simply use my notes app on my phone. 

As I said in the title, my current method is super simple: 

• I start by looking at my calendar to see how many meals we will be able to eat at home that week.

• Then, I plan any themes/special things that we have going on. For example, we try to stick to something taco-ish on Tuesdays and we always do pizza Fridays - sometimes out at a restaurant and sometimes at home. 

• Next, I look for inspiration for recipes. I’m not a person who enjoys eating the same things over and over, so I’m often looking for a new recipe, something we haven’t had in a while, or a new spin on something we love. I mostly use Pinterest and a couple of my favorite Instagram accounts (Real Food Dieticians, Shawna from A Little Less Toxic, my own recipe highlights) to choose new recipes. 

• Once I’ve assigned meals to certain days (very loosely), then I add any needed ingredients to my grocery list (which I keep in the same document in my notes app) and add any items that I can to my online grocery order.  

• Currently, I’ve been getting the majority of my groceries through Kroger’s online pick-up or through Thrive Market.  On occasion, if I have time and mental capacity, I’ll go to Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods for meat and specialty type items but that’s pretty rare these days. 

The key here is to do what works for you in the season that you’re in.

I have a couple of free resources that may be helpful for you: The Foods that Heal Guide is a list of my favorite nourishing and nutrient-dense foods to keep your fridge and pantry stocked for easy meal prep; and the Easy, Healthy Eats recipe e-book has a few of my go-to recipes with ideas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Why We Struggle with Consistency

How often have you heard “consistency is key”? It’s everywhere, right? In a lot of instances, I think this is absolutely true, but I want us to go a little deeper today because consistency is often a pain point for people when it comes to their health. Often when I ask my friends or even my Instagram followers what they are struggling with the most or where they feel like they need the most support, every single time the overwhelming popular response is “consistency”. Consistency in exercising, getting good sleep, eating nutritious food, not eating junk food every night, and on and on it goes. I would venture to guess, you’ve probably had a few of those thoughts yourself and I would say “me too”. I have found myself feeling the same frustration - “ugh! Why can’t I stay consistent in this?!”

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Recently I’ve been doing some work that’s prompted me to dig deeper into the idea of body image and diet culture - and why we so often feel like we are failing in this area of consistency. One thing that has come up for me and that I think may be one of the biggest contributors to this common struggle is a misalignment between our mindset and our goal. 

I know that sounds a little philosophical, but hear me out on this. 

When the goal (our desired result) is to lose weight, get our bodies “summer-ready”, change sizes or “tone up” a certain area, or even to feel “good” or get back to feeling energetic like we did 5 or 10 years ago, etc. - we will get overwhelmed. First of all, those things are not always in our control. We can do all the “right things” - follow all the principles of living a healthy lifestyle and sometimes still not lose a pound, or still not get pregnant, or still have a disorder or disease. So that’s going to feel really frustrating and we’re probably going to give up. We will also often give up because of the massiveness of the goal. It doesn’t seem attainable - it feels so far out of reach, so we often won’t see the value in sticking to whatever plan we had made for ourselves. 

However, when the goal is something attainable, something we can control, something that is directly and immediately affected by our choices, it makes following the plan easier, therefore allowing us to be “consistent” in our behavior. 

Let me put this in a practical context and use this for an example: 

Scenario - It’s 9:45 pm and you can’t stop thinking about the ice cream in the freezer. 
Goal: Be able to fit back into the jeans you wore two summers ago (the pre-covid ones :P)

Your thinking will most likely go something like this: “ugh - this sucks! I bet ____ doesn’t have to worry about not eating ice cream.”, or “meh! Who cares? I’ll never get back in those jeans anyway”, or “I’ve already fallen off the wagon the past few days, what’s one more treat? I’ll do better tomorrow”... and then you either deprive yourself and don’t eat it while inducing shame and judgment on yourself and others; or you do eat the ice cream and immediately feel regret or apathy about the goal you set for yourself. This leads you to the question, “Why can’t I be consistent in what I’m eating?!” Does that sound familiar?

Now contrast that with the same scenario but a different goal:

Scenario - It’s 9:45 pm and you can’t stop thinking about the ice cream in the freezer. 
Goal: To feel good about how you are caring for your body 

Can you already feel the difference? In this scenario, your thinking may go something like this: “hmmm… well, every time I eat that ice cream, my stomach gets so bloated and I feel miserable for hours. I don’t think it’s worth that. What else do we have instead?” , or “I love that ice cream - that sounds so good, but it is going to probably spike my blood sugar pretty high. What can I eat with it to help stabilize my blood sugar?”, or maybe even “Ah yes! I’ve been waiting for the perfect time to try that ice cream and I know it’s made with good ingredients. Let’s go for it!”. So either you choose to eat the ice cream or you don’t, but you make a conscious decision that won’t be followed by guilt or regret. 

The difference is that with the second goal, you are making a decision from a place of loving and caring for your body right now, just as it is, rather than making a decision from a place of shame or apathy while putting a ridiculous amount of pressure and expectation on yourself. 

One of the biggest enemies of consistency is unrealistic expectations. 

There is definitely something to be said about being intentional and scheduling things into your day or week like prioritizing sleep and exercise. There is a practical, logical piece of actually planning things into your calendar or schedule because if you don’t, it probably won’t happen. But again, we are much more likely to make choices that support our wellbeing when we are operating from a goal of caring for our bodies and stewarding them well. 

So I want to challenge you to take a look at your goal or your lack of goal. If you are feeling discontent or wanting to change something about your health, what is your goal? Is it to take good care of your body, to love it well, and to support it in functioning well? If not, consider making it your goal. It will change how you make decisions. It will change how you feel the decisions you make. It will change how you feel about yourself. 

If this idea rubs you the wrong way or you find yourself rolling your eyes a little bit while listening to this, ask yourself why. Dig in a little bit. Does the idea of loving your body, caring for your body, or stewarding your body well seem weird or even wrong to you? Do you feel like your body is subpar or broken or maybe shouldn’t even be considered at all? If so, why? Where did that idea come from? 

If you find yourself feeling this way - let me ask you a few questions that I hope will change your perspective. Do you believe that your body was created by God? The same God that created the sky and the ocean, and the sun and the moon. Do you remember that after He created man and woman - their bodies - He said that it was good? Do you actually think that He could make something that is bad or subpar? If you find yourself thinking that about your body that way or talking about your body that way, isn’t that insulting your Creator? 

Please know that I don’t ask you these questions to put shame on you, if anything I want to help pull shame off of you. Friends, we think that our biggest problem or struggle or obstacle is not being consistent, but in reality, our biggest obstacle is that we have a misalignment between our mindset and our goal. 

When we view our bodies as something to be fixed, or a project that always needs to be improved, or even as just a tool, or really anything other than a good creation of the Father in which we get to experience this life and experience Him, we will not be motivated to be consistent in caring for our bodies. It will feel useless, pointless, we might even find ourselves believing that it’s vain. 

I’m not saying any of this as someone who has conquered this or figured it all out but as someone who is right there with you. I’ve been working through some of these thoughts and feelings myself over the past few weeks. I’ve had to dig deep and ask myself these same questions about what I believe about my body and the One who made it. I can honestly say that realigning my mindset with what God says and focusing on the goal of caring for my body out of a place of love, gratitude, and stewardship, has made a huge difference for me and I believe it will make a difference for you too. 

It’s easy to get caught up in what culture says about health or about what we should look like, eat like, workout like but as believers, as women who follow Jesus, that is not where we find truth and direction for our lives. 

If you feel frustrated with yourself because you don’t feel that you can “stay consistent” or because you lack motivation, ask yourself these questions. Check your mindset and focus on the goal of caring for your body, being kind to and grateful for your body instead of trying to make it into something or make it look a certain way. 

If you feel like you need to do some work around the issue of body image or body shame, or if you would just like to know more about a kingdom mindset about health and body image, I encourage you to check out Jess Connolly’s Good Body Gals community. I have found it incredibly helpful for my own soul as well as helping me think about how I teach and coach other women. You can find all the information about it in her Instagram bio or by searching for the tag #goodbodygals. 

If you feel like you need one-on-one support in this area or in knowing what steps to take, what being kind to your body looks like, what a healthy lifestyle looks like for you, I’d love to help you with that. I offer a free initial consultation where I learn about your specific needs, goals, and current obstacles and together we can come up with a plan to help. You can learn more about that by going to yourhealthforward.com. 

That does it for me today, friends. Thanks for spending some of your day here with me. Keep moving forward, go love your people well and I’ll talk with you next time!

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Why Throwing Out Your Scale Is a Good Idea

Hi friends! In today’s episode, I wanted to share a quick tip with you that is guaranteed to have a positive effect on your health - throw out your bathroom scale! For real. 

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Okay, maybe you don’t have to throw it away but do get it out of your bathroom. Maybe put in the back of your closet or under your dresser - somewhere where you won’t see it every day. 

This topic has been coming up often in my coaching sessions lately. Almost everyone I’ve talked to recently has been frustrated because they’ve gained a few pounds over the past few months and don’t see it coming back off, and I’m going to tell you some of the same things that I shared with them. 

• These past few months have been strange for everyone. COVID = stress, and when we are stressed our bodies go into “fight or flight mode”. Losing weight is not a priority for your body when it’s stressed - surviving is. Our bodies can’t tell the difference between being stressed about a pandemic and being chased by a wild animal. It just produces stress hormones and acts accordingly, which often leads to our bodies holding onto weight for protection. This will likely resolve once the stress has calmed down or we learn how to manage it and our bodies can return to a more relaxed state. 

• Weighing every day will only frustrate you! Our weight fluctuates for many different reasons throughout the day, week, and month. For example, hormones, salt or water intake, and inflammation can all make our weight shift up or down a bit and that is completely normal. Most of us would never even notice it, but if you are weighing every day, you will likely see that fluctuation and think that it’s due to something you did or didn’t do. 

• Weighing every day will make you focus on the wrong things. It is not emotionally or physically healthy to obsess about our weight or every single thing we eat, but if you find yourself continually worrying about the number on the scale, that is likely what you will do. This can lead to an unhealthy obsession and more stress (read - more weight gain).

Weighing every day will most likely sabotage your weight loss goals.

If you are going to weigh yourself or wanting to use your weight as a measurement for progress, I personally recommend only weighing yourself 1 x per month or at the very most every 2 weeks (When you do weigh yourself, make sure you are weighing at the same time of day, day of the month, wearing the same amount of clothing, etc.)

Ultimately focus on non-scale victories to track success and progress. A few examples are:

• The way your clothes fit

• The way your rings fit

• The condition/growth of your skin, hair, and nails

• Your energy level

• Your mental/emotional state

• Your amount of cravings for sweet/greasy foods

• If you are consistently doing things that help you to feel good

Remember, you could reach your goal weight and still be miserable and not feel good. A number is not the goal. A number doesn’t define health. You get to define that for yourself. You are worth far more than a number. 

Listen to your body. Appreciate your body and the gift of health. Go throw out your scale!