Latest / SAY GRACE | Weight Loss + Health for Overwhelmed Women- Stress, Busy, Consistency, Realistic, Motivation, Starting Over, No Restrictions / 3 ways to lose belly fat

Transcript

3 ways to lose belly fat · SAY GRACE | Weight Loss + Health for Overwhelmed Women- Stress, Busy, Consistency, Realistic, Motivation, Starting Over, No Restrictions

0:00
Music.
0:45
Dreaded belly fat. So today I'm diving in on some myths for losing belly fat,
0:51
as well as three practical ways to actually start to lose that belly fat today.
0:58
So let's dive in.
1:01
Okay, y'all, here we are. I know we all want our pants to button against a flat belly.
1:08
I know we want to not have our belly hang over the top of our panty line, right?
1:14
I know we want to be able to wear clothes that fit, and that you aren't always
1:20
looking for a loose midsection area, right?
1:25
Like, I know that that is such a common topic for clients, for friends,
1:30
for family members, like everybody's always talking about their belly, right?
1:34
And if you caught our menopause podcast back in 2024. I will link it in the description.
1:41
But if you caught that podcast, you know that as you specifically as a woman,
1:46
and then as you get older, the belly fat reduction becomes harder.
1:51
It takes longer.
1:53
It's more frustrating. So a lot of my friends, I am, I am approaching 40.
1:58
And a lot of my friends around the age of 40 or older are like.
2:02
Okay, I have got this belly fat and it was never here before. What do I do?
2:07
And so our hormones don't help that, right?
2:10
And again, you can go back to the menopause podcast and hear a lot more details
2:15
about that specifically.
2:17
But today I want to talk about specifically what we can do to start targeting
2:24
and losing some of that belly fat, okay?
2:28
And so outside of just looking and feeling better, right? Having our pants easily
2:33
button without us having to suck in, right?
2:35
Outside of that, more belly fat is not great for our health, right?
2:40
So having a larger midsection is indicative of more possible health conditions.
2:48
So women with a midsection of 35 inches or larger are at a higher risk for developing
2:54
things like heart disease, diabetes,
2:56
and metabolic syndrome, So not just for our pants purposes,
3:00
but also for our health purposes, we do want to focus on belly fat and body
3:10
fat. I gave you a little preview there to what's coming.
3:13
But before we dive in, I have got three tips for you today for how to start
3:19
reducing that belly fat.
3:21
But before we dive in on that, I really want to take some time to hit on at
3:28
least two myths that I hear all the time.
3:31
People truly believe these things, and so I really feel like it's necessary
3:35
to talk about before I dive in on my tips.
3:39
It's just two things that people tend to believe will reduce belly fat.
3:44
The first one, y'all, is...
3:48
Not buying into any kind of supplement or any kind of, you know,
3:53
pill or anything that promises to reduce belly fat, okay?
3:58
I'm not saying there may not have been a pill out there that you had taken at
4:01
one time or another and you took it for so long and then you felt like,
4:04
oh, my belly is flatter, you know what I mean?
4:07
But it is not targeting the belly fat, okay? Because you probably noticed as
4:12
soon as you got off that pill or, you know, got back to your normal life,
4:15
the belly fat came back, right? And sometimes people say it came back worse, right?
4:19
But so what these pills typically do is, A, they either cause you to eat less, right?
4:27
And so you are in turn losing weight, you are losing fat, right? Across the board.
4:33
Or they help like flush you out.
4:37
They help get rid of all the things in that belly that may be causing bloating or inflammation, okay?
4:44
So a lot of times, if you've ever taken a pill or anything that promotes belly
4:49
fat loss, you also notice that you may have a little diarrhea going on with that.
4:54
And so these things are not true methods.
4:59
And so another thing that I notice a lot is women who will try, they'll do like a.
5:06
Crunches or an ab challenge where they're, they, you know, they commit to do
5:11
an ab exercises every day for 30 days or whatever to try to lose belly fat. Okay.
5:16
And so this is also a myth. And so both of these are a myth because you cannot spot reduce belly fat.
5:27
Y'all, you cannot spot reduce any body part fat, okay?
5:32
It's just, it's not the way our bodies work. You cannot say,
5:37
oh, I'm happy with my arms and my legs, but I really want to lose my belly fat.
5:41
So I'm just going to get out here and do crunches all day, every day.
5:45
It does not work that way.
5:48
Our body just does not work that way to where you can spot reduce fat in certain areas, okay?
5:57
And so I know that's frustrating, but it is, it is the way it is.
6:02
And so you, but even though you can't target fat loss in certain areas,
6:08
you can strengthen certain muscles.
6:12
Okay. So you can target muscle gains like in your abs.
6:17
Okay. If you, if you do do that 30 day ab exercise, you know,
6:22
challenge, you will strengthen your
6:26
core muscles right that you will feel stronger there
6:29
you when you flex your abs you will start to feel like oh i may
6:32
you know have a little tightening going on in
6:35
there right same like if you do bicep curls every day for you know however long
6:41
like eventually you are going to start to strengthen you will notice more strength
6:46
in your biceps so while you can strengthen certain body parts and body muscles,
6:53
you cannot target that.
6:56
Fat loss in those muscles, okay?
7:00
And so this leads me into my first tip, okay?
7:03
And my first tip for reducing belly fat is going to be to focus on that whole
7:09
body fat loss, okay? By looking at it as, yes, I would love to see my belly fat go away, right?
7:17
But I now know that I can't do that just by like eating specific foods or,
7:24
you know, that supposedly target fat loss,
7:26
belly fat loss or whatever, or I can't do it by taking a specific pill or I
7:30
can't do it by, you know, doing a thousand crunches.
7:33
If you focus on a whole body fat loss, your body will eventually start to rid
7:39
itself of fat in your belly, right?
7:43
Because when you focus on whole body fat loss, weight loss, basically,
7:48
your body starts to reduce and pull from everywhere.
7:53
Okay. And so now I will go ahead and say as a woman and as a woman working with
7:58
a lot of women, y'all, doesn't it just seem like our body is like,
8:02
nope, that place that you want to lose the most, that's where we're going to go last.
8:07
We're going to shed body fat out of your booty, out of your belly.
8:13
I mean, out of your boobs, you know, all the things that you want to keep,
8:16
right? You want to keep your booty and your boobs, but you want it to target at your belly.
8:20
And it seems like that's typically the last place. You know,
8:23
I have a few clients right now. They're like, I just want to see the fat in my arms go away.
8:28
And it seems like the rest of my body is shrinking, but my arms are still the
8:31
same size. And I'm like, girl, I know.
8:34
Okay. And so there is no rhyme or reason for this. There is no magic.
8:38
Again, there is no magic pill or magic food or magic anything that's going to
8:42
make your body say, oh yeah, let's start pulling from the belly now,
8:47
you know, but I will say that with consistency and, you know,
8:52
sticking to your goals and sticking to, you know, what you're setting out to do here,
8:57
your body will eventually start to rid itself of some of that belly fat, okay?
9:05
So, of course, around here, one of our favorite ways to do that is to strive
9:10
to stay in a healthy range, calorie deficit, meaning we're not going to go out
9:14
and starve ourselves in the name of fat loss, right?
9:19
But we are going to pay attention to what we eat.
9:23
We are going to get our calorie requirements from someone who is highly qualified
9:26
to give it and try to stay within that calorie deficit. And then,
9:33
of course, also moving your body more.
9:35
This is just going to help you with overall body fat loss.
9:40
And so regarding movement, any movement is good movement here,
9:44
but aerobic and strength training
9:46
exercises have been proven to be really helpful in this area, right?
9:50
Aerobic, because I mean, you're burning off, you know, you're burning calories, you're burning fat.
9:55
And then also strength training will help you to maintain that muscle while you are losing the fat.
10:03
And then we know that muscle helps us also burn additional fat.
10:08
So the more muscle we have, the more fat we actually are able to burn in a day.
10:15
And so both of these are really great. And again, y'all, it doesn't have to
10:18
be anything like strict, hardcore.
10:21
I'm going from no exercise to, you know, seven days a week because I'm trying to lose this belly fat.
10:25
Because again, you, you know, like all of our previous podcasts,
10:28
we've kind of talked about this year so far, you really want to make sure that
10:32
it's realistic and it's sustainable, right?
10:34
And so you're looking at belly fat for the long haul.
10:37
You're not hurrying and trying to lose it in two weeks because,
10:42
again, if you go to those extreme measures, yeah, your belly may be flatter
10:45
for the wedding that you're getting ready to go to, but it will come back because
10:49
it's not true belly fat loss, right?
10:52
So focusing on that whole body fat loss, which we talk about often,
10:56
often, often around here.
10:57
So I'm going to move on to my second tip, which is where I'm going to spend
11:03
most of my time today, y'all.
11:04
It is such a big one. And I just feel like, I guess because the world we are
11:10
in, we overlook it because it just seems like,
11:14
that's expected is to just overlook this massive problem that I feel like we've
11:20
got across the board in America specifically, and that is reducing stress and getting enough sleep.
11:28
And I know you've heard this, and I know you think, Constance,
11:31
how does one do that when I have kids to feed, a husband to, you know.
11:37
Again, just cater to and love on, you know, and enjoy your life with,
11:41
but also a demanding job and places to go people to see like you just are constantly
11:47
feeling overwhelmed and out overstretched.
11:51
Right. And so it's like, how do I reduce my stress? You know what I mean?
11:55
And it kind of sounds like laughable, honestly. And I get that.
11:59
You know, I get that so much. And I will tell you, I am I've talked about it
12:02
on my last pod or my podcast earlier this month, like, it is what I'm working
12:06
on daily, it is my main focus daily is like rest, and stress reduction.
12:13
And so I'm not here to tell you that this is going to be easy by any means,
12:17
but I do want you to understand the massive importance of this tip.
12:22
Okay. I want you to understand why reducing stress and getting enough sleep
12:26
can be a game changer for you in not only, you know, belly fat loss,
12:31
but weight loss in general and overall health. Okay.
12:35
So I'm going to kind of dive. I'm going to get a little sciencey just for a second here.
12:39
Okay. So we have cortisol, right? Cortisol is a hormone that is released by
12:44
the body to help us regulate metabolism and our body's response to stress. Okay? So.
12:53
It's released. So if, if we're constantly stressed, then our body is constantly
12:59
releasing cortisol, right?
13:00
Because that's its job is to like, chill us out, right?
13:03
You know, help us with the response that we have to stress, right?
13:06
And so if we are stressed, our body is releasing cortisol.
13:11
Okay, but when cortisol is released in excess, it spikes our blood sugar,
13:18
and it stimulates that excess glucose, okay?
13:21
So the excess glucose is often stored as fat in your abdominal area, okay?
13:29
So if we get too much glucose, our body stores it, right?
13:33
And if the cortisol is releasing too much, which in turn stimulates excess glucose,
13:38
and then there's nothing for our body to do with all that excess glucose,
13:41
it's going right to be stored in our belly, okay?
13:44
And so aside from that, the blood sugar spike leads us to wanting to eat higher
13:52
fat and higher calorie foods, just by having that blood sugar spike.
13:56
And oftentimes eating more or eating foods that we wouldn't typically eat.
14:02
Have you ever gone into where you're just starving, you know what I mean?
14:05
And you're just kind of like, I need food, I need food, I need food.
14:07
Like, this is what it's, it's not a normal, regular food response.
14:15
It's like urgency, you know, when we have that blood sugar spike, right?
14:20
And so then, then, y'all, high sugar and high fat foods that we eat,
14:27
like if, okay, if we're like, oh, I'm starving, let me grab,
14:29
you know, this candy bar or whatever.
14:32
Those type of foods release really like great. they feel good in the moment, right?
14:38
They release several feel-good hormones that help to improve our mood and reduce stress response.
14:47
Okay, so do you see kind of like a little wheel working around?
14:50
Okay, we stress, then it spikes our insulin or it spikes our blood sugar,
14:56
and then we turn to higher calorie and high fat foods because we're seeking, you know,
15:01
that feel-good to kind of balance out what we're experiencing.
15:07
And then guess what happens? The food actually makes us feel good. Right?
15:12
And the stress is reduced. Right?
15:16
And so like, y'all, they call this like our reward system for a freaking reason.
15:22
When we eat those foods, our brain feels rewarded. And it's like super happy
15:27
about it. You know what I mean?
15:29
And so this is why we turn to comfort foods in stressful times.
15:34
Like it is a true mechanism there. It is something going on in our body,
15:38
right? This is why we turn to these foods.
15:41
And so what's what's crazy or is,
15:45
is that we not only is this happening in like, you know, it's not it's not great
15:50
with what you know, the responses and stuff that are that are happening in our
15:54
body, but we are also training our brain to turn to food when we stress,
15:59
you know, so next time we stress not only is like the cortisol being released,
16:03
the blood sugar spike in, you know, all this going on that I just talked about,
16:07
but also your brain is just kind of like, oh, hey, remember last time?
16:12
Last time when you were super stressed out about your mother-in-law and after
16:16
you hung up the phone with her, you went to the pantry and you ate two whole rows of Oreos.
16:21
Remember that? That was some good times.
16:23
Remember how you kind of blacked out and didn't really feel anything and you
16:28
kind of went numb, but your stress went away when you ate those two rows of Oreos?
16:32
Let's do that again because your mother-in-law is on your nerves again today.
16:36
You know what I mean? Like your brain is, oh, it is, it is so wildly insane y'all.
16:43
And so it is telling you like, this is a good idea.
16:46
Even though you consciously may not be, you know, may not think that you consciously
16:51
may be like, I really don't need to go eat my feelings.
16:53
I really don't need to go eat my feelings, you know, but then next thing you
16:57
know, you still eating your dang feelings. And this is why. Okay.
17:00
And so we are not only is this a process that is kind of naturally occurring
17:06
when we have a lot of stress inside of our body.
17:09
But then we have also probably had years and years and years and years of training
17:13
our brain this way, right?
17:17
So it is super important to get to the root of this, right?
17:25
Like not only, you know, not only just.
17:29
From a weight standpoint, but like from a mental health standpoint,
17:35
like we, we may be happy, we may be experiencing this cycle every day,
17:38
every few hours, y'all, depending on how high of a stressful life you have right
17:45
now. You know what I mean?
17:46
But what's, but what's wild too, is after like, if we've been through a season
17:52
of high stress, like, like if you, if you went through a season where maybe,
17:56
you know, your job was super stressful and you found yourself,
18:00
doing this cycle a lot more often than you had in the past, it can be extra
18:06
hard to break free from that, even when that stress goes away, right?
18:11
Because our brain is like used to constantly being stressed out.
18:15
And so this is a thing.
18:19
This is a huge thing inside of the program because I notice a lot of my clients
18:23
will come in and they will have a lot of stress. We talk about stress a lot.
18:31
We talk about being busy a lot inside of our membership.
18:34
And it's because you just kind of see it. I mean, with so many women,
18:39
y'all, we see it in their assessments.
18:40
We see it in just the way they post inside the community.
18:43
We see it in their emails when they're just like desperate for,
18:47
you know, an answer or whatever.
18:48
And because life has been spiraling and they're like, what do I do?
18:52
Where do I start? You know what I mean?
18:54
And so naturally, they come to us for like the weight loss focus, right?
18:59
Naturally, they're like, what food do I eat? What exercise do I need to do?
19:03
You know, just tell me, give me a meal plan, right?
19:07
Like, that's what they come to us for. But in reality, they really need to be
19:12
focusing before they get to the foods,
19:15
before they get to like, white knuckling their way through trying to stop the comfort eating, right?
19:22
Because that's a huge one is like a lot of my clients set goals to stop comfort
19:30
eating, stop turning to these foods that make them feel better in the stress, right?
19:35
They're like, I'm just, I'm going to stop going to the pantry and,
19:38
you know, grabbing the Oreos, for instance, okay?
19:41
But like when you are in this state when the cortisol has been released.
19:47
And when you are, you know, again, like I just said, your brain takes control.
19:51
No one has an amount of willpower large enough to stop this cycle of doom that
20:01
has gone on for years and years and years and years and years,
20:04
right? And so a lot of times we're.
20:07
Cut off the problem at the knees, you know, by trying to just stop the comfort food eating or drive.
20:13
Oh, I'm just going to get all the comfort food out of the pantry.
20:15
You know, I mean, that helps. But what if you drive them down the road when
20:18
you have a stressful situation? Girl, you know, you're pulling into Sonic.
20:21
You know what I mean? And so while we spend so much effort trying to cut it
20:26
off at the knees, we really need to be getting to the root of it,
20:30
which is the actual stress, okay, which is the actual stress.
20:35
And so this is why on our, we have a weight loss roadmap.
20:39
And so on the roadmap, you know, it kind of guides you through the basics of
20:43
nutrition and then staying consistent and then really getting into that mind work.
20:47
And then next thing you know, you're lost all your weight and you're maintaining
20:50
that weight loss, right?
20:51
But we also have, it looks like a little car that's kind of swerved off to the
20:55
side and wrecked on the side of the road.
20:57
And it's called the Hot Mess Express, okay? And this is when you feel like,
21:01
okay, life is spiraling.
21:02
I don't even know how to get back on this weight loss roadmap,
21:04
you know, because I just find myself in this cycle of comfort eating or,
21:10
you know, neglecting myself or whatever day in and day out. Okay.
21:14
And so when they come to us about being on that hot mess express.
21:18
One of our primary focuses is, okay, let's talk about the stress in your life.
21:23
Like what, what is happening to make you feel like you are spiraling every single day?
21:30
And then is there something, I mean, there are seasons of life where literally we can't help it, right?
21:35
You know, like if we've got, you know, ill parents or, you know,
21:38
we're dealing with some really heavy traumatic things, you know,
21:42
that is that total different story.
21:44
But for many of us, it's kind of like we've just let these little fires all
21:49
over take control of our lives.
21:52
You know, there's not like one huge fire. There's just a bunch of little fires
21:56
that make us absolutely crazy all day, every day. You know what I mean?
21:59
And so if that is the case, we have got to get to the root of that and help,
22:05
you know, put out some of those fires, right?
22:08
And so while I know it feels like you need to say, oh, I'm just going to,
22:13
you know, stop buying cookies and chips and that'll solve the problem of me
22:18
always turning to those foods when I'm stressed.
22:22
You know, what you really need to do is say, okay, how can I reduce the stress
22:26
so that this cycle we just talked about happens less so that you aren't looking
22:33
for food to comfort you as often, okay?
22:38
And this is a long, a long game, right?
22:41
Like this is not by next week we're all going to be less stressed and more blessed, right?
22:46
Like, but it is the, it is one of the, I mean, most important ways that not
22:53
only can you, of course, like have a better.
22:57
First of all, a healthier body, you know, and, and, and more regulated hormone
23:01
responses, right? But second, and,
23:04
have a better relationship with food throughout
23:07
your days so that you are able to
23:10
then lose weight and like kind of feel like you've
23:13
got better control around food and then keep it off because you've created this
23:17
great these habits of focusing in more on stress than than you are like a specific
23:24
you know food choices or whatever right and so it's really hard to kind of put it into words,
23:32
but by reducing your stress, by getting to it at the root, everything else above
23:39
it feels less intense. It feels less hard.
23:42
It feels less, you know, traumatizing, you know, if you will. Okay.
23:48
And so some ways to reduce your stress, okay, are things like meditation.
23:52
Oh, meditation, y'all. There are so many good studies about just meditating.
23:55
Okay. And so for some of us, That's praying, like just, you know,
23:59
getting quiet, getting still and praying as often as possible.
24:03
Lord have mercy. It will help us all so much, you know.
24:06
Other ways to reduce stress is regular exercise. Okay. And I do not mean go
24:11
into the HIIT class and killing yourself for an hour, y'all.
24:14
If you leave there and you are feeling like your body is worn down,
24:19
you can hardly stand up to cook dinner, like you were just fatigued all the time.
24:24
But you making that HIIT class every single day, like maybe consider something
24:28
different, something with a little, you know, less impact, something that maybe
24:32
is a little shorter in time.
24:34
You know, like we want the exercise to feel beneficial, not like we've had a
24:39
car wreck every single day, okay?
24:41
Another way to reduce stress is therapy, right? Just getting it out.
24:45
Sometimes just saying it can solve half the problems, right?
24:49
Such a big believer in therapy, y'all. it is absolutely life changing.
24:54
Even if you don't have any kind of big traumatic things going on in your life,
24:57
if you have a bunch of little fires, therapy is...
25:02
It's so, so needed, you know, and I will say that every time I've been to therapy
25:07
and when I go, I go for, you know, a while.
25:09
Every time, probably except for one time, it's been because of a bunch of little
25:14
fires. You know what I mean?
25:16
Because it feels like you're juggling 20 balls in the air and you still only have two hands.
25:21
You know what I mean? So it just feels so heavy.
25:24
And so therapy can really help you kind of navigate and learn how to maybe just
25:30
drop some of those balls and keep moving. right?
25:33
Making time for things you enjoy. Okay, so like you deserve to have a minute,
25:39
an hour, several hours of your day, where you actually are enjoying life, you know what I mean?
25:46
So figuring out what that looks like for you and when you can fit it in and
25:49
getting over the like, guilt and the shame of taking time for yourself.
25:57
It is not like taking time, no matter what the world says, no matter what anybody
26:03
negative speaking over you in your life has said to you before,
26:07
taking time for yourself so that you can be a better person for yourself and
26:13
for others in your life, right, is not selfish.
26:17
It is, it is, it's like the whole world has us thinking that we need to just
26:21
be grinding and working for other things instead of just like loving our lives
26:27
in the moment that we're in.
26:29
You know what I mean? So making time for yourself is nothing to feel guilty about.
26:34
Also learning to say no. Again, another one that the world would have us think
26:38
we need to be saying yes, yes, yes, because what if we miss that opportunity?
26:41
Or what if she's mad at me?
26:44
Or you know, whatever. Okay, but like, it doesn't matter.
26:48
Even if you miss the opportunity, or if she's mad at you, like if you've got
26:52
500 fires, and you can't even enjoy the yes that you said yes to,
26:57
you can't even be present there because you just said yes, because you don't
27:00
know how to say no, there's a huge problem.
27:03
You know, so learning to say no, learning to take time to say,
27:07
okay, I'm not sure, but can I let you know about that?
27:10
Right. And then really taking time to get quiet. And first of all,
27:13
say like, Lord, do I even have time for this in my heart?
27:15
Is this, is this, Lord, do I even have time for this?
27:19
And is this something that.
27:22
You have for me? Like, do you even want me to say yes to this?
27:26
You know what I mean? And a lot of times if we just get quiet,
27:28
and we give it more than one beat of thought, we kind of have our answer. You know what I mean?
27:34
And like not saying yes, until we do feel like we have our answer, right?
27:38
Managing our time better is a great way to reduce stress. So I'm actively working
27:43
on this, like time blocking things.
27:46
And then also saying like, I am not going to work between these hours.
27:50
But between this hour and this hour, I'm going to work on this,
27:54
you know, just really making sure that we have a grip on our day and on our schedule.
27:59
That is stress reducing, right?
28:02
Reducing screen time. Okay. And we've talked about this in the past and I won't
28:05
dive too deep into it today, but y'all like staring at a screen all day and
28:10
seeing everybody else's highlight reel, right?
28:14
Does nothing for us. And it actually spikes stress. It spikes our cortisol.
28:19
Okay. And so just get off of your phone.
28:24
Stop checking Facebook every 30 minutes. Okay. It is not serving you well. Okay.
28:31
And then focusing on intentional, true rest.
28:35
Again, this is not, oh, I'm going to, I've got an hour. I'm going to turn on,
28:40
you know, a Netflix show while I scroll my phone, while I paint my toenails.
28:45
Like, like, no, you're distracted. That's intentional distraction or non-intentional, I guess, distraction.
28:52
I'm talking about intentional, true rest where you're not multitasking,
28:56
even if the tasks you're multitasking are restful tasks, like you're doing one
29:01
thing and you're like slower. You are more still.
29:06
Okay. You are able to rest.
29:09
Maybe spending time outside, okay, or reading or just literally doing nothing.
29:14
Like I've been reading this book in it and it's like so challenging because
29:18
it's like, what happened to us just doing like sitting here?
29:21
Like, why can we not just sit? You know what I mean?
29:24
I mean, it's such a thing. It's because our world is so fast paced.
29:27
And then also just in general, reducing the overwhelm in your daily life.
29:32
Y'all, I am not saying this is easy.
29:35
I am not saying it's easy to reduce the overwhelm in your daily life.
29:38
But I do believe that every single one of us has a space that we could be reducing the overwhelm in.
29:47
Could people be upset with us? Yeah. You know, could we be sad about it?
29:52
Yeah, 100%. Like it could still be something that we feel like we really want
29:56
to do or, you know, we love or whatever.
29:58
But like if we feel led to get rid of this chunk of our lives that is causing
30:05
more overwhelm in the entire day or in the entire week, you know,
30:10
then we are able to tolerate.
30:13
It like just that.
30:15
There are so many. I listened to this podcast.
30:19
It was a couple months back, but they talked about how at the beginning of every
30:23
year, he and his wife lay out, like they write on sticky notes.
30:30
Okay. They go in the kitchen and they write on sticky notes,
30:32
all of their responsibilities.
30:34
Okay. So anything from like taking our kids to dance practice, to, you know,
30:39
volunteering at the church, to, you know, go into, you know,
30:43
help at the local food pot or a food bank, like anything, you know,
30:49
anything that you have that would go into your calendar because you're like,
30:52
I know I've got to show up for that.
30:54
Somebody needs me or I need to be there or whatever.
30:56
Okay. And they lay it all out and then they look at them all and assess and remove them.
31:04
Okay. I think he had, they had like a set number that they tried to stick to.
31:07
And maybe they removed the ones that, you know, they, if they exceeded the number,
31:11
they had to remove a certain amount.
31:13
I can't exactly remember, but like, what if we did that?
31:16
What if we just took inventory of all of our responsibilities?
31:20
And then like, if we looked at them, what made our stomach roll?
31:24
Which ones made us be like, Oh, you know, like which ones? And those would be the ones that went.
31:31
Okay. And I recently did this in my life and I did not do the sticky note thing.
31:35
I mean, I may do that, but there was just a pretty large responsibility in my
31:39
life that every time it was time to do that responsibility, I was dreading it.
31:46
Okay. Now, when I got there, I loved it.
31:51
Like I was so happy to be there. I was so happy to like, you know,
31:54
be involved and be around these people and like do, I mean, I loved everything
31:57
about it once I got there, okay?
32:00
But my life outside of being there was...
32:06
Like so demanding. And honestly, the focus was a different direction.
32:11
You know, like I had to completely change my thought habits and change like
32:16
my focus of how I do things and what I was doing to be able to do this other
32:22
responsibility that I'm talking about. Okay.
32:25
So it just felt like a huge to do just to be able to accomplish this responsibility each week.
32:31
And so I had to say, like I can't do this anymore. Okay. And were people upset with me?
32:37
Probably. Okay. Were people sad? Yeah. Was I sad?
32:41
Yes. You know, it, there was, it wasn't, it was not a situation where I was
32:45
kind of like, I'm over this. I'm done with y'all. Bye.
32:47
You know, that is not where it was. Like I really, I loved this weekly thing
32:53
that I was doing, but it just didn't, it's like a piece a puzzle that did not
32:59
fit that specific puzzle anymore.
33:01
It was just more effort than necessary for me to keep doing it, you know?
33:07
And so, again, it's not going to be easy, okay?
33:10
And it's not, it may not just be like clear and apparent, or it may.
33:13
If you're listening to this and you're like, oh, I've been meaning to quit that
33:17
for so long and I just keep, I keep putting it off, baby. Here's your sign, okay?
33:22
Because the Lord may have more for you. And you know what more is? sometimes
33:25
it's just rest and then with that rest you may
33:28
be so you may be filled up to be able to
33:31
just enjoy your days more okay and be better at the responsibilities that you
33:34
do keep okay so I know I've harped on this for a hot minute but I will say that
33:41
reducing stress and getting enough sleep could arguably be one of the single
33:45
like largest problems with weight gain amongst women.
33:50
I mean, I could sit here and argue for hours and hours and hours upon it, okay?
33:53
Because every woman I know is highly stressed.
33:58
They feel like all their demands are too heavy, okay?
34:02
And then we just talked about not only the scientific, you know,
34:07
way how our body responds to that by turning to food to cope, right?
34:13
But then, of course, just how our brain loves a habit. it loves a pathway, right?
34:18
So then if we are constantly overwhelmed and constantly heavily burdened,
34:23
then we are constantly resorting to food to cope with it, right?
34:28
And then we are doing what? We are gaining weight.
34:31
Okay, we're gaining weight. And it could just be just that simple, right?
34:35
So this is why no fad diet will ever make you lose weight forever, right?
34:41
Because you will not be able to stick to the fad, right?
34:47
You will not be able to say no to the two rows of Oreos whenever your mother-in-law calls.
34:55
You know what I mean? Like you will not be able to do that forever, right?
34:59
And so then if you are failing at the fad constantly, it may actually leave
35:05
you feeling more stressed, right?
35:08
Because that's just another thing you fail. That's just another thing to be
35:11
stressed about. It's just another thing to feel overwhelmed about, right?
35:14
And so again, it's just like this nasty cycle.
35:18
And then of course you're like, oh, I can't, I can't lose weight.
35:21
And every time I lose weight, I feel defeated. And it's just this ugly,
35:23
ugly, ugly thing, y'all, that we have created this huge ball of webs with.
35:29
But I believe that if we would just get, if we would just focus more in on the
35:34
root, if we would say, Lord have mercy, instead of I've got to do good this
35:39
week. I'm going to meal prep. If we would just say, you know what?
35:42
I got to do good this week. So I'm just going to sit my tail right here and
35:45
truly rest. I'm going to put my phone down.
35:47
I am going to breathe. I may take a nap. I may cuddle with my kid.
35:52
I'm going to find true rest before we walk into this week instead of,
35:57
you know, trying to get down your list of to-dos, right?
36:01
So in a recap on that one, basically lots of stress leads to high cortisol and
36:06
high cortisol leads to more fat in our belly, right?
36:10
And then of course, poor sleep will magnify this because it puts extra stress
36:14
on our body, which we just talked about.
36:16
And studies have shown that people who get less sleep naturally have more belly fat.
36:22
Okay, so focusing on that sleep and that stress.
36:25
Now, my third one, it's kind of like wraps it all in a bow, okay?
36:29
But I did want to dive in on it just a little bit more. And so my third tip
36:33
for losing belly fat them.
36:36
Eating balanced. Okay, so at the front, the first one we talked about like focusing
36:41
on fat loss, but this one I want to talk about eating balanced.
36:46
Okay. And so the reason eating balance can be helpful here is it helps create
36:51
a healthy body and mind. I talk about this all the time, right? But our body is busy.
36:56
It's got lots of things going on in there, right?
36:59
If we are not serving our body well, then our body is not going to serve us
37:03
well, right? With the belly fat or any kind of fat loss, right?
37:07
And so you've got to serve your body well, so that it can be at its best.
37:13
So by eating a balanced diet, you are helping it to be at its best, right?
37:21
So getting the fruits and veggies and maybe like whole grains in so that you're
37:24
getting the vitamins and minerals that your body needs daily to function at its best, right?
37:29
And then also studies have shown that people who eat more fiber and more protein
37:34
will have less belly fat.
37:35
And that's for good reason, right? By getting protein and fiber in,
37:40
you're not only helping ensure that the body is functioning properly,
37:44
like the muscles are getting what they need, your digestive system is getting what it needs, right?
37:49
But people who eat fiber and protein also have better satiety, okay?
37:54
So if you're getting enough protein and enough fiber, you are feeling more satisfied
37:58
in your meals, aka cutting out
38:01
the cravings, right, and reducing all that snacking that we tend to do.
38:05
So if you notice, like, if you ever have like a carb heavy day with not a lot
38:10
of protein, you often find yourself leading to more carbs.
38:13
So I will never forget, like, it's so funny, how you look back on things in your life.
38:18
And I remember when I was a kid, we would go to Cracker Barrel a lot, you know, weekends.
38:25
And so, oh my gosh, y'all, we would go, or sometimes we would go to Denny's
38:30
when we still had a Denny's local, but either way it went, I was getting pancakes.
38:34
Okay. And so I would, we, as a kid, I would always go, we would eat pancakes
38:37
on like a Saturday morning with my daddy. It was so fun.
38:41
And I would be stuffed when we left there.
38:44
And I mean stuffed like dad, can you push me to the car kind of stuffed. You know what I mean?
38:51
But it always blew my mind because only a couple hours later, I was starving again.
38:58
You know what I mean? And that's because the pancakes were only carbs.
39:01
The pancake themselves and then the syrup was only carbs and it was quick carbs.
39:05
So it was getting through me quick. But I didn't understand that.
39:08
Then I'd be like, why was I just so full? And now I'm absolutely starving.
39:13
You know what I mean? So getting that fiber and that protein in can help you just not.
39:18
Feel that, you know, intense hunger and not feel it nearly as often, right?
39:24
And then, of course, we know that highly processed foods, high fat foods,
39:28
high sugar foods, they don't serve our body well.
39:31
They actually don't serve our body at all, right? There's like no purpose for
39:34
those foods other than they taste good and they release those chemicals we talked
39:37
about earlier that make us feel better, right?
39:39
And so those foods are not serving our body, but they are contributing calories, right?
39:46
And they are also training our brain that, oh, we love these.
39:50
Let's eat these more, you know what I mean? Because it makes us feel better
39:53
with those chemicals that were released, right?
39:57
And so it leads to cravings of those type of foods more often.
40:02
So by trying to eat balanced, you know, and less of the higher fat,
40:06
higher sugar, higher processed foods, and more of the healthy whole foods that
40:11
we talked about just now, you are training your body that like,
40:15
oh, this, this is the good stuff.
40:17
This is what, what makes me thrive, right?
40:20
And then also just knowing that alcohol can add extra stress response to our body.
40:25
So limiting that can be super helpful as well in, you know, overall balanced
40:30
eating, which will in turn lead to less belly fat.
40:35
Okay. And then I want to dive in on this just a little bit more before we wrap
40:39
up as far as eating balance goes, because it is such a, like,
40:42
it is one of my passion topics and that is gut health. Okay.
40:47
So not only are we trying to like, you know, eat balance because,
40:51
you know, it's serving our whole body well, but also y'all, if we eat balance
40:55
and we eat some of these, you know, great healthy foods that I just talked through,
40:59
it can contribute to a healthy gut.
41:03
Okay. And if you have heard anything about the gut, the gut literally has involvement
41:07
in everything in our body, okay?
41:09
So a healthy gut can reduce our cravings and it can help with anxiety and stress, okay?
41:17
It also helps with improving sleep and it helps with better digestion,
41:22
better mental clarity, more stable blood sugar, and consistent weight loss, y'all.
41:27
So if you're just eating balanced, you're going to get better sleep,
41:31
which again, we talked about, better sleep equals, you know,
41:35
helping you lose that belly fat, right?
41:36
If you eat a balanced diet, it will help with your gut health,
41:42
which will reduce that anxiety and stress, which again, will stop that cortisol
41:47
release from happening as often, right?
41:51
Like, and they'll help even things like mental clarity, okay?
41:53
If gut health helps with mental clarity, then odds are you will feel like,
41:59
okay, I have the energy today. I have the motivation today.
42:01
I can accomplish the tasks that I have set out to accomplish today.
42:07
So that in turn, I am not stressing about it at four o'clock before I get off
42:12
work, you know, and all night long thinking I got to get that done tomorrow.
42:15
I got to get that done tomorrow. You know, like it's just an overall improvement on your life.
42:21
You know, when you focus on eating balanced, okay, getting a good balance of
42:26
all these healthy foods to, you know, serve your body and specifically your gut well.
42:32
Okay, so I know that was kind of a deep dive today. I feel like I've been jabbering
42:36
100 miles an hour, but I do think it was it is just such an important topic, y'all.
42:42
And, you know, I feel like my listeners like to get to the depths so that they
42:48
fully understand, you know, what we're doing here and why.
42:52
And so, as always, I want you guys to remember when you're when you've taken
42:57
all this information I've given you start start easy, right?
43:00
Like ease into it. We're not creating some kind of hard checklist that we're
43:03
going to stick by and be really rigid, okay?
43:05
But I do hope that after this episode, you understand the importance and it
43:11
helps motivate you to kind of focus in on something that I spoke about today and really stick to it.
43:16
And again, consistency is going to be the key here, okay?
43:19
Life is not going to change after one week of doing this, right?
43:22
But you will look back after one month, two months, three months,
43:26
four months and say, oh my gosh, look how far I've come and my pants button better, right?
43:33
Okay, so I hope you'll have a wonderful day. And as always, remember to say grace.
43:39
Thank you for listening to today's episode of Say Grace Podcast.
43:40
Music.
43:44
If you enjoyed it, it would mean the world to me if you left me a five-star review.
43:49
Also, make sure to follow the show so you don't miss another episode.
43:54
Plus, if you're interested in learning more about losing weight and eating the foods you love.
43:59
Music.