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3 ways to make healthier choices in your day-to-day · SAY GRACE | Weight Loss + Health for Overwhelmed Women- Stress, Busy, Consistency, Realistic, Motivation, Starting Over, No Restrictions

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Music.
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Okay, y'all, people are always asking me where to start when trying to become healthier.
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I think this day and age, like there are so many ideas.
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So many to-dos, so many like checklists that you could follow out on the internet
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that a lot of times people get just like really overstimulated and overwhelmed on where to start.
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So they just don't start.
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I know I've felt this way in other areas of, you know, life in general.
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And so today I wanted to share just three easy ways, three easy places to start,
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right, for creating healthier habits in your day to day, which will ultimately
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lead to the weight loss and the healthy lifestyle that you desire, right?
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To have a healthy lifestyle, it requires consistent healthy habits, right?
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And so a lot of times we want to start with the hardest things and because,
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again, because that's what we like read about or that's what we feel the most
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guilt about or whatever.
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And like that is those same things are the exact reason that we usually don't stick with it.
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Right. Because we say like really hard things like I'm going to stop eating
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sugar forever, you know, and like we just all know that that's not realistic.
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So today, I just really want to talk through three realistic things that you
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could do to get started literally tomorrow that wouldn't take much time out
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of your day or life to get started on making a true.
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Lasting, healthy lifestyle change.
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So one thing I do want to mention here is I'm going to give you three things.
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But if you are someone who feels like you're super defeated right now,
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you have tried and failed a million things, like it's really hard for you to
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even fathom being successful at something, I would encourage you to just start with one.
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Okay, all of our ladies in our program, we do action steps for their weight loss.
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And like, we give them the option to create three action steps a week.
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But for a lot of our newer ladies or our ladies with a lot of life going on,
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you know, we really encourage maybe just one week because we'd rather see you
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go all in on that one than try to stretch yourself too thin and get really overwhelmed
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about three. So I'm going to give you three.
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But again, you start small. One to two focuses.
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OK, something that you know you can realistically do and commit to. And guess what?
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If you slay it next week in the next, well, then you can add a second one.
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Right. And we'd rather see that happen than you like totally give up on it,
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you know, within three days because you're so, so, you know, overwhelmed.
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So my first question.
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Way to just create a habit of making healthier choices in your day-to-day is to add something.
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Okay, okay, so hear me on this.
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A lot of times when we want to lose weight, we say we're going to cut something.
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Think about it. You're like, oh, I got to lose weight. I got to stop drinking
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these Cokes. Oh, I got to lose weight. I got to stop eating my nightly dessert.
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Oh, you know, we're always saying what we got to stop doing, okay?
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And that automatically puts this film of misery on top of losing weight, right?
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Like we equate weight loss to things being taken from us, right?
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And so a lot of times that can be one of the reasons that we end up,
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you know, giving up because we're sick of not having our nightlight ice cream
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or whatever it is, right?
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But if we add something healthy, we're just promoting a healthier change and
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not removing anything yet,
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okay or at all you may never have to right but so
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just add so thinking about okay what could you add that
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would make you feel like you were making a better choice in your day could it
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be water okay we're in the midst of water week right now when you know with
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with with the people who signed up or could it be a vegetable like do you not
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get many vegetables in your day and you feel like okay hey,
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if I just got a little more green in, then I know I would get some more fiber
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in and I know I would just physically feel better, right?
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So just adding a vegetable to your dinners, again, not taking away the potatoes
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or whatever, just adding maybe a side of green beans.
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Could you add more protein? Like a lot of us know, myself included,
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we'd be knowing we need more protein, right? And so could we just add that into our day?
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So deprivation, like when we
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take something away, it seems to be a lot easier to give up on. addition.
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Studies show that we resist the taking away of something, but we are always
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internally seeking growth.
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Just this alone makes more sense. We're going to resist if we try to remove
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something from our... Our brain is naturally going to resist if we try to remove
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something from our diet or from our day, but our brain will more easily welcome
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the addition of something.
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Again, something that is realistic, y'all. If you have never had sautéed spinach
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in your life, and it makes you literally gag to look at or think about.
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Do not say you're going to add sauteed spinach in your day. Like make it something
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that is like doable and sounds easy enough. And if you would just,
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you know, commit to it, you feel like you could do it.
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Because by adding something, right, we're also showing ourselves that we can stick to something.
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A lot of times when we give up on our weight loss efforts, it's because we have
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convinced ourselves we can't stick to anything.
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When in reality, it's like, yeah, you can't stick to constantly removing all
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the things you love. Like none of us can. That sucks.
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You know what I mean? But by adding something in and showing ourselves that
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we can stick to something, it gives us more motivation to keep going and keep growing. right?
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It also helps with undoing that restriction mindset, right?
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Just by saying, like going against the grain of always assuming I have to take
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something away to be healthy.
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I have to take something away to lose weight by adding something and saying,
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hey, wait, I'm being healthy by adding this.
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It helps undo some of that mindset that we have just had, you know,
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beat into our brains over all of our years, you know, that we're used to seeing,
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especially when it comes to weight loss and dieting.
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Also, when you add a healthy habit, you're more likely to see the benefit of it.
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Okay, like, so when you add something in, it makes you more hyper aware of seeing,
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oh my gosh, well, this is why, you know, I should be doing this.
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And that ultimately results in it eventually becoming more important than the
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thing you were going to remove anyway.
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Okay, so let me give you an example, okay?
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We are in the midst of Water Week, like I just said.
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With our ladies who are like diet Coke-aholics or even regular Coke-aholics, right?
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I constantly am saying, do not set out for water week.
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Do not say like, okay, yes, we're going to try to get all of our ounces in for
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water and I'm going to cut out all my diet Cokes because that is,
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that it feels triple times as hard, right?
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And so instead we're just going to say, I'm going to, I'm going to have my Cokes
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per usual, but I am going to also make sure I get my water in.
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So however that looks, right? Are you going to try to get it all in earlier
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in the day so you can have your afternoon Coke?
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Or are you just going to make a commitment to having 10 ounces of water before
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every, you know, Coke you open or whatever it is, you know, it may look different
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for each person, but the goal for that,
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for those people should be to get the water in, in addition to continuing their
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habit of having the Coke or the Diet Coke or whatever it is, okay?
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And so the reason for this, again, is all the things I've already said about
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deprivation and you won't give
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up as soon and all that, but also by just simply putting that water in,
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okay, getting the water in day to day, you are going to see the benefit of what
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it feels like to be hydrated.
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You are going to start to notice that your body loves
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you so much more after drinking a bunch of water than
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it than it does after drinking a bunch of coke okay
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so you are going to start reaping the benefits of that water intake in turn
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hopefully down the line right causing you to maybe consume less coke either
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way because you're going to say I don't this is the exact I mean this exact
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scenario has happened with me with Diet Coke specifically.
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I just, the more water I've got, the more water I would drink,
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the more I would realize how bad I felt after I had Diet Coke.
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Like I would be lethargic. I would crave sugar.
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I just like wanted, I just, I wanted to take a nap shortly after.
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And so I started to notice like, dang, if I would just not have this Diet Coke
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and just continue on with my water, then I would feel better throughout the day.
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Again, that is something that is noticed down the line, depending on who you
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are, like you could be years for now.
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But again, it doesn't matter because you are creating that healthy habit and
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you're sticking to it and you're going to see the benefit of the habit, right?
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And so that is another great reason for.
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Adding something and not, you know, in exchange, removing something with it.
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Okay, so my next small way to make healthier choices in your day-to-day is legit
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something that is life-changing, specifically for my clients.
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And really anyone who buys into this and really commits to it,
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you will see such a drastic change.
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You will feel so much better about your eating, okay?
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And it is simply waiting 10 minutes before eating something you didn't plan to eat, okay?
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I know a lot of us are faced with impulse food situations, right?
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Whether it's like somebody brought something to the break room or your neighbor
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brought over something she baked or literally a lot of us who are home more often,
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like we have things out on the counter or we just find ourselves magnetically
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brought to the pantry, right?
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And so it's like, we're faced with food that we did not put on our meal plan.
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We did not intend to eat today, but these same exact foods are the ones that
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at the end of the day, we feel like wrecked our day.
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You know, time and time again, our ladies are like, I did so good until I got,
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you know, distracted or I got hangry.
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And the next thing you know, I was standing there talking to my husband,
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eating the barbecue chips or whatever it is, right?
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And so this tip to wait 10 minutes before you eat something can really just
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help you show up and be present in the eating, okay, whether you choose to eat
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it or not at the end of the day.
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Okay, so like because impulses, the truth of the matter is, is impulses can
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leave as quickly as they come.
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So if it is one of those things where the food just magically appears and you
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have like five seconds to decide whether you're going to eat it.
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Like the impulse to grab it could leave almost as soon as you walked away,
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right? It could, it may not, but it could.
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And you have to give yourself that space and that window for the dang impulse
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to pass before you just stick your hand out and pick up the muffin that you
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don't even, you don't even like banana nut muffins.
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And here you go eating one. You know what I mean? You have to give yourself that space.
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Okay. So by waiting 10 minutes, you're giving yourself the space to let that impulse leave.
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You also, it's like that habit alone is forcing you to think about whether you really want to eat that.
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So giving yourself the space, waiting 10 minutes, then gives you the opportunity
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to say, okay, what are the pros?
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What are the cons like of eating this banana muffin that I don't even really
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like? And how will it impact my weight loss? Like I was doing really great today.
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What will this do to me and you know, my goals for the week?
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If I eat this banana nut muffin, am I going to find myself like extra tired
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later because all the sugar is this is the fact that I'm eating this going to
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put me in a negative headspace because I'm going to feel like I let myself down
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for the day on my weight loss goals.
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Like, again, it's it's like a split second kind of thing. But.
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Stepping away from the food gives you time for that split second kind of thing, okay?
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Also, waiting 10 minutes can give you time to redirect your thoughts, okay?
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You go back to your desk, you get back to work, you call a friend,
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you, I don't know, do whatever you need to do to kind of remove yourself from
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the thoughts around food.
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Because a lot of people are like, Constance, I'm gonna be thinking about that donut an hour later.
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Like, I don't care. I don't care if I get 10 minutes, but I'm going to be thinking
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about that donut an hour later, which is probably true if we're just sitting
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here saying, okay, I'm counting the minutes.
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It's 10 minutes. It's nine minutes, eight minutes till I can have the donut,
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seven minutes till I can have the donut.
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You know, if that's the mentality, then sure, you're going to be thinking about
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the donut, but by stepping away and saying, I'm going to wait 10 minutes,
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and then also saying, what can I do while I wait?
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And find something that distracts you away from the obsession over whatever
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that delicious baked good might be can help you then later,
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you know, either 10 minutes passes and you don't even know it's passed or you
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come back with a more clear headspace when it is time to make the decision about
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whether you're going to go back for whatever it is.
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And so, okay, all those are kind of like leaning towards hopefully stepping
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away, realizing it's not worth it and not having it.
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But in the same sense, y'all, I literally do not care if you after 10 minutes is up.
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I do not care if you have it or if you don't have it.
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Because what this does the most by waiting 10 minutes is it shifts the control to you.
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Okay, you now have the control.
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The food did not have the control over you.
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You had control over whether you ate that food okay
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so because so in 10 minutes you can come back and
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you can say you know what I've thought about this I've given it some time and
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yes baby as nasty as I think banana nut muffins are I want this one because
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it's got some yummy crumble on top or so and so made it and I know she makes
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everything delicious you know or same you know same with the donut like I have
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thought about it and I know it's worth it I may catch an extra lap outside in a little while,
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or I may just accept that I went a couple hundred calories over today because
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it is worth it. Those donuts are good.
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They're from my favorite place and I want one, right?
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But so either way it goes, if you are saying like, I am going to...
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Have it, or I have decided not to have it, those 10 minutes give you the room
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to take the power over your eating and your health, okay?
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And so this is how a lot of our clients talk about this, about how on the back
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end, even after eating it, they do not feel the shame.
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The shame is not there because they gave themselves that window to say,
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no, I am choosing to have this. I did not do it out of impulse.
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I did not do it out of lack of thought or whatever.
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I am choosing to eat this regardless of how it may or may not affect my weight
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loss this week. And that is power, y'all.
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That is control. That is the ability to say, food does not have control over me.
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I have control over food and my weight loss. And so doing this consistently
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strengthens that muscle.
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You put that to practice day in and day out.
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And eventually you feel like it's how you see like our success stories and our
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testimonies where people are
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like, I just didn't feel like having cake today. So I just didn't have it.
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You know, like that's where that that's where that stems from is they have started
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to gain control over food and realize food does not have control over me.
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Okay. And these are one of those practices that they are putting into place.
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And two, the beautiful thing about it is if you do decide to eat it after waiting
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the 10 minutes, you're more likely to do it like unapologetically.
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Okay. Which like you're more likely to savor it.
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Present during it. Like you're not going to mindlessly shove it down your throat
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while talking to a friend or by, you know, distractedly writing an email.
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Like you're going to sit there, you're going to enjoy it. You're going to say,
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I made this decision to eat this.
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It is heaven. I'm so glad I chose to eat this, you know, donut.
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And it, you know, that allows our brain and our body to register.
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We are eating food. We are enjoying food. Okay.
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This, this serves for great, Like great just digestion principles,
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like it helps our digestive system to actually let our brain and our body register
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that we're consuming something, right?
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Instead of shoving it down our throat out of guilt, okay, or out of shame or
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just like, oh, you know, I'm just going to eat it real quick and pretend like
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it didn't happen, right?
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Then our body's not even registering that we ate. And so we find ourselves hungry
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again pretty soon after by taking the time to sit down and truly enjoy and eat
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this food, you're serving your body and your brain well, right?
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And two, again, without the shame, without the guilt, okay? Which,
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honestly, it totally defeats the purpose. If you're gonna eat like a splurge
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type food, you know, why would we do it in a guilty posture?
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You know, like, again, we want to say like, I am choosing, I have the power,
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I'm choosing to eat this And I'm going to savor and soak in every minute of this delicious bite.
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You know what I mean? So mentally, it serves as well as well as physically.
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Okay, and then my third...
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Way to make healthier choices in your day today is to move your body, okay?
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And I know this doesn't have to, we've talked about this extensively, y'all.
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It doesn't have to be like a boot camp or, you know, a rigorous physical activity
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exercise. It can literally be like a five-minute walk.
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You know, when you, I have a, I have a PFN Plus client right now who she works
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in the hospital and she literally just like takes a lap around the hospital
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halls about mid-morning whenever she can fit it in.
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And so, yeah, it's really not like probably burning an excess amount of calories,
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right? And that's really not the purpose, okay?
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It's helpful, right? But moving your body specifically sooner in the day,
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if you possibly can, gives you more body awareness simply, right?
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When we move our body, when we feel our breath, you know, quickening,
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when we feel our heart beating, like truly, a lot of times when we get away
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and move our body and exercise, we're also kind of mentally decompressing.
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So we're, we're becoming more in tune with our body in general,
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more in tune with our brain, with our limbs, with our internal system, like all of it.
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Okay. We are, we are checking in with ourselves, how our body feels, right?
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So that is giving us awareness of our bodies. And y'all, We are so busy that
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a lot of times we do not have awareness of our bodies. There is no body awareness.
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We could go days without any awareness of our bodies.
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And I am learning so much about this right now personally with just like checking
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in with emotions and then how they are.
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Presenting in our body and how we feel. And so it's the same with health, right?
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If we take the time to move our body, in turn giving us more awareness of our
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body, then we stay better in tune with how our body feels and how food affects it, okay?
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Making you more interested in taking care of it.
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It's why, like on the days you do happen to get to the gym or you do happen
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to get to walk in or whatever, what we tend to be more on our game, right?
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A lot of people say that, like, they, they, they, a lot of people will say,
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like, I just, I didn't want to ruin my progress after I got to the gym this morning.
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And that's a thing, but I prefer to think of it as like, continuing the kindness,
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like if we if we're kind, and we served our body by moving it,
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we also want to continue to be kind and serve our body by eating well,
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you know, and doing drinking our water, are doing all the things that we know
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lead to weight loss, because it feels good.
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And we have we have awakened ourselves to how our body feels today by moving it. Okay.
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Plus, on top of that, exercise and or just movement in general releases endorphins,
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and that helps with stress and emotion.
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Okay. And so if we got more endorphins, and we got less stress and emotion.
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Then y'all know what we do with that stress and emotion when we don't know what else to do?
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And it's, we eat it. We eat our feelings, right? When we are stressed out,
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when we are overwhelmed, when we are super emotional, we're like,
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we're always going to be seeking something to make it feel better.
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Always. Okay. So, so we can either seek something.
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Something that is less healthy, which is sitting in the pantry and eating the
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house down, you know, because yeah, that's going to make it feel better for just a short minute.
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Or we can kind of get ahead of it and help with regulating all of that by moving our body. Okay.
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And so those endorphins help lower that stress. It helps regulate that emotion.
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And then you are turning to food less for the management of all the things. Okay.
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Plus exercise is linked to better sleep. And we all know that better sleep is
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linked to better eating habits.
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Now, again, y'all, please don't get off of here and be like,
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now Constance is saying I got to go, you know, go to a boot camp at 5 a.m.
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Because I don't have any other time to do it. No, ma'am. No, ma'am. Okay.
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That is not what I'm saying. But instead of sitting in your car and scrolling
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your phone while your kids are inside at, you know, dance or out at baseball
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practice, could you make a lap?
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Could you just move your body a little bit, right? When you are standing at
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the counter cooking breakfast for your kids, could you do some lunges?
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Could you walk a few laps around the counter?
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Could you, you know, just march in place? Like just little things like this.
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It doesn't have to be something massive that shifts your whole entire schedule around, right?
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For me in the mornings, especially now that it's getting back warm and,
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you know, when Jess is in town, I am doing my devotion, but then I'm making
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literally two laps around a loop that's in front of my house, okay?
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I don't have time for more than that before I have to get back and get the kids
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up and get breakfast made and get them out the door, right?
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I don't have time for more than two laps, but it's two laps.
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And man, the difference that it makes for me mentally is everything.
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Again, I maybe burn 50 calories, y'all. So it's not like going to serve me in
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my calorie burn for weight loss.
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And that's really not the purpose of this suggestion.
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It just sets me up for a better day. It sets me up for a better headspace and
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better choices as I go throughout the day, not to mention obviously helping
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with that emotional, the emotional regulation and the stress. So.
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Anywho, this was a shorter one than some of my usual ones, but it was packed
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in with good, good stuff. And so I would love to hear from you guys.
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Let me know which way you are going to start small to just start making healthier choices in your day.
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And of course, as always, y'all with everything around here,
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it's not going to be perfect every day. You're going to forget to wait 10 minutes.
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You're going to, you know, forget to add that vegetable in one day or whatever.
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Like you're not going to be perfect day to day. Okay. And so you have to remember
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that grace, that forgiveness, and that intention to just, okay,
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I missed it today, but I'm going to start again tomorrow.
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So as always, y'all remember to say grace.
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Thank you for listening to today's episode of Say Grace Podcast.
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Music.
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