by Lucy | Mar 18, 2017 | Motivational Mondays
Monday, March 20, 2017
It’s Monday morning, you’ve decided this is the week, “I’m going to be healthy and lose weight!”
You start with a fruit and vegetable smoothie, a handful of 7 almonds for a mid-morning, a tossed salad with grilled chicken and light dressing at lunch, and a piece of fruit in the afternoon.
Then you arrive home, it’s 5:30 PM, what’s your first stop? Straight to the pantry… because you’re starving!!
- Handful of pretzels, check
- A bag of snack size Doritos (bought for the kid’s lunches), check
- Leftover cookie from the weekend, check
Now it’s time to cook dinner. Still trying to eat right, you prepare broiled salmon with asparagus and brown rice. Feeling hungry and unsatisfied at the end of the night you find yourself back in the pantry for couple more handfuls of this and that and you’re finally done.
You ask yourself, “What happened?? Today was supposed to be different!” This is what I call upside down eating as shown in the inverted pyramid.
When we start the day trying so hard to be good we typically deny our body calories.
What is a calorie? More specifically, what does a calorie give you?
Energy!!!
When we deny our bodies the energy they require to do life we end up getting hungry signals from our body to make up for the calorie deficit at the end of the day.
Flip your pyramid upside down
- Eat more energy in the morning. Yes, that means breakfast. Some find benefit by eating breakfast like a king but for people that are not hungry I recommend breakfast 1 and breakfast 2 – these include light options such as yogurt, a handful of nuts, a piece of fruit, whole-grain crackers with peanut butter, or oatmeal.
- Eat when you’re hungry. The first step, identify what hunger feels like in your body. If you just ate, it might just be thirst. I recommend having 16 oz of water and reevaluating after 15 minutes. For the mid-afternoon crash, have high protein non-trigger foods such as unsalted nuts, cheese stick, or low-sodium deli meat. Drinking coffee or tea to postpone eating will likely lead to overeating later.
- Become more mindful. If you’re standing at the desk, answering emails, taking phone calls, or rushing to a meeting you are likely not in tune with the calories you are consuming. Can you take 30-60 seconds to pause before inhaling the food to thank your body and the creator for providing this nourishment?
Food for thought:
As a non-breakfast eater for 3 years I know this can be a challenging concept. For me, it was all about starting small – that’s where breakfast 1 and 2 helped!
When are you eating the most energy (calories)?
When do you need more energy?
Tell us in the comments below what you’ll do to flip your pyramid this week!
by Lucy | Mar 10, 2017 | Motivational Mondays
Monday, March 13, 2017
How much sleep you get, how you wind down at the end of the day, the quality of your sleep, and how you wake up in the morning has A LOT to do with your weight and general well-being.
Don’t take it from me! Here is more information from Health Ambition on how our sleep patterns affect our weight and wellness.
-Our sleeping patterns affect our hormones, such as ghrelin and leptin, regulating hunger cues which control our appetite.
-Studies show sleep deprivation leads people to choose higher-calorie foods and an increased caloric intake for the day.
Improving sleep hygiene:
There are plenty of external factors affecting sleep patterns, and some that you can control.
- Get in a routine – Yes, I know it sounds boring, but I tried to get in bed and on my way to sleepy town by 10:30 PM every night. Preferably earlier! Each time you disrupt your routine – a.k.a. weekends – it can cause a jet lag like effect on your circadian rhythm.
- Remove the blinking, glowing, distracting, and other light disturbances. I’m looking at you Wi-Fi router, digital alarm clocks, TVs, and glowing A/C adaptors. These subtle yet bright lights in the bedroom can affect our sleepy hormone levels and circadian rhythm. If you absolutely cannot move them I highly recommend adopting an eye pillow (or childhood “blanky,” like me!) to block out the light disturbances.
- You don’t really need to know the time. If you must get up at a particular hour, set an alarm on the phone, and don’t bother looking at the time if you wake up unexpectedly in the middle of the night. Each time we look at the clock it starts a story in our minds about how “I didn’t get enough sleep, I must fall back asleep to get ‘enough’ sleep!”
- Consider meditation. Meditation is a powerful tool for living a well-balanced life. It’s less about emptying your mind of all thoughts because that is unrealistic. Meditation is the practice of focusing your mind on one calming thought. I find it useful to focus on my breath or start counting backward from 1000. Yep, that can be considered meditation. So go ahead and count the sheep and let yourself enjoy a restful night, waking up feeling refreshed. No matter how many hours of sleep you got.
Food for thought:
Did you notice I didn’t include a specific number of hours to sleep each night? That’s because it’s different for all of us! I need at least 7 hours to feel great, but my hyperactive business lawyer can function normally with 5 hours of sleep.
Try an experiment next weekend: Go to bed when you’re tired, and wake up when your body wants to wake up.
- How many hours did you sleep?
- How can you improve your sleep hygiene this week?
Let us know how you’re sleeping in the comments below 🙂
by Lucy | Mar 3, 2017 | Motivational Mondays
Monday, Mar 6, 2017
I love that moment when I tell people that Mondays are my favorite day of the week… If I could read minds, I’m guessing their thinking, “there’s something wrong with this girl,” or “she must be on something.”
As the story goes, in 2009, when I started Well-Balanced Nutrition (the first time) Monday’s quickly became my favorite day of the week because anything is possible. I see each Monday as a mini New Year and the opportunity to start fresh. Most people start the New Year feeling happy and optimistic. Why not start each week with the same enthusiasm?
When restarting Well-Balanced Nutrition, in May 2015, I knew it was time to rekindle that love of Monday to share an empowering, motivational, and health-focused message with our Well-Balanced nutrition tribe (that’s you!). I was blessed to have Kristen join the team early 2016 and together we strive to bring you uplifting and authentic wellness information.
But really, how do you make Monday’s “the best?”
1.Do something that makes you happy on Monday morning.
I designate every Monday as my admin time and make it very sacred time to get all the businessy stuff accomplished. Uninterrupted. Slightly odd that this is my happiness; however, I feel grateful to have the time to focus on what needs to get done and I feel so accomplished when I check those tasks off my to-do list!
2. Include positive brainwashing.
Also, I start each Monday morning with a mentor chat from my man, Darren Hardy, followed by an inspiring TED talk with breakfast. Have you discovered these yet? It’s amazing what you can learn in a 10-20 minutes inspiring video.
3. Eat something well-balanced and delicious.
Often, we get a little too liberal on the weekends and feel the need do penance to the diet gods on Monday for being “bad” over the weekend. This is bound to make Monday even less fun. Instead, I enjoy avocado toast w/ a fried egg and yummy fruit – nom nom nom!
4. Get moving.
My motto is a body in motion stays in motion, a body at rest stays at rest. Even if there’s not much time, include a 10-minute walk around the block before you head to work, a brisk walk during the first 15 minutes of your lunch break, or ending a long work day with a brief stretching session with doyogawithme.com.
Food for thought:
What makes Monday truly great? My state of mind. I choose to believe that Monday is the best and therefore I wake up with a positive attitude every Monday morning because anything is possible.
What are you gonna do to make your Monday the best? We’d love to see your comments below!
by Lucy | Feb 18, 2017 | Motivational Mondays
Monday, Feb 20, 2017
Last week, one of our tribe members told me “I think I’ve lost my mojo, I just have no motivation!” She’s been working long hours from 7 AM until after 5 PM. She states “I should do some activity in the evening, but I just have no motivation.” I replied, “please don’t should all over yourself.” When we say “I should” we are focusing on the negative or external expectations because the unspoken truth that follows is “but I don’t want” or “I can’t…” Rather than focusing on should, it’s helpful to accept the reality, be kind to yourself, and make a plan.
Whether you:
1. Gained weight at the holidays
2. Suffered an injury that required steroids and lead to a 20-pound weight gain
3. Just plain got busy
There’s hope and a strategy! Let’s reflect how to get back on track and over the speed bumps of life.
The best way to reach your potential is to create a roadmap and revisit the map regularly. We often have big goals at the beginning of the year such as losing 30 pounds or training for a marathon. Big goals are similar to taking a road trip. In order to plan a trip, we need to know the specific destination and what path will take us there (without too many detours!). If your goal is weight loss, you may first want to assess your eating and exercise habits to determine what steps will help you lose weight.
Create the path
Start by tracking your food intake and exercise habits to determine what can be improved. If you are mindlessly snacking at the desk or in front of the TV, set a new habit to drink water or unsweetened tea instead. If you are not getting at least 7,000 steps/day, find ways to include more movement in the day.
Markers of success
Set up mini goals or milestones along the way. Continuing with weight loss example, perhaps you get to buy a new article of clothing for every 5 lbs you lose!
Stay on track
It’s easy to feel discouraged when the scale won’t seem to budge or goes up a pound or two. Consistently checking your weight at least 1 time per week will give you the accountability to stay consistent with your new healthy habits.
Get a copilot
There are lots of people that want to support your goals! Tell your family, coworkers, best friend, and other members of your favorite group fitness class about your goals to have a few more people cheering you on. Some days feel harder than others, their support may be just what you need to keep going.
Food for thought:
If you find yourself thinking “I should,” pause and consider if it’s really something you want to do? If not, please stop ‘shoulding’ on yourself. Create a roadmap, find an accountability partner, and set the vision so you know what success looks like!
What’s your next well-balanced destination?
by Lucy | Feb 6, 2017 | Motivational Mondays
We can shift the world through love, but we must have love in our own hearts first. -Daily Om
Recently, Kristen and I read Daring Greatly by Brene Brown, which is about understanding shame, embracing vulnerability, and ‘enoughness.’
At Well-Balanced Nutrition, we see folks, mostly women, at all different parts of their wellness journey. Last week, I saw a young woman who had lost nearly 50 lbs three years ago and maintained her weight loss until recently. She put on 5 lbs after starting a new relationship and “getting more liberal,” in her eating habits. She came to see me about losing the weight after spending all of January following her healthy diet (with no change on the scale… frustrating!).
Shortly thereafter, a good friend explained her own dissatisfaction with “those last 3 pounds she couldn’t lose,” and proceeded to berate herself for eating a handful of M&Ms.
While reading Daring Greatly, I kept thinking of all my loved ones and how much I wanted them to read this book too. It’s so easy to get swept up in feeling inadequate, shameful, or unwanted. Our basic human desires are to belong and all too often that is tied to our body weight, shape or pants size. The story we tell ourselves is if those numbers don’t match the societal or our personal expectations then we’re not good enough. As Kristen put it, “We all fight the voices that tell us, if only I had ____, I would be _____. You can fill in the blanks.”
Food for thought:
A couple weeks ago Kristen wrote about Getting rid of perfection and embracing enough. Did you notice the inner voice she mentioned?
What would you tell your daughter, sister, or bestie who is shaming herself about the handful of M&Ms?
It’s time we start to love ourselves for who we are. Remember, we must first show love to ourselves in order to share love with those around us.
Here’s the one thing we really want you to know: You are beautiful, just the way you are!
by Lucy | Jan 29, 2017 | Motivational Mondays
Monday, January 30, 2017
Written by: Cathy Paessun “Motivational Mama”
So after making through the holidays without gaining a pound (!) the next 2 weeks proved to be more challenging. I gained a couple pounds – which Lucy told me was actually very normal. But here’s the great part – I knew which of my choices were problematic and I knew I was probably going to keep stress-eating for another few days. As often as possible, I made the right decision – clean eating, proper portion size, and more exercise. Sure enough, after another week I was back down to my pre-holiday weight and feeling much less stressed out.
Despite having eaten poorly for a couple weeks, one week back on track and my weight was back down and actually a smidge lower. I realized that all these months of eating properly had set me up to go right back to my new weight. Because I didn’t continue stress-eating, my weight didn’t continue going up. Like Lucy says “don’t make it up, make it back”. Rather than over-react to my slight weight gain, I just went back to what I know are the right choices for me and by golly, it worked!
Lucy has been saying for years if you want to lose weight, track what you eat. So last May I finally decided to get serious about dealing my pants size creeping up. She suggested Weight Watchers and I gave it a try.
Tracking my food was a pain but worth it. I learned so much about what I thought was healthy vs. what really is healthy for my body. It was not fun at first giving up things I love like bread, French fries and double-stuffed Golden Oreos but the results were worth it. I lost 15 pounds in 6 months but more importantly learned how to maintain the results.
Food for thought:
There’s no such thing as dieting. Every day you wake up and engage in your daily diet. Food choices are a lifestyle. Are you making the choices that will give you the lifestyle you know you’re capable of?
