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 I wanted to check in with you and see how you’re doing with cleaning up your nutrition. What are your successes? What are you struggling with? Do you feel you’re on the right path of achieving the HEALTH that you want?
What I wanted to share today is how certain foods make you FEEL. So Wednesday night, Joey brought us home Frontier burritos. Mmmmm! Now, here’s where KNOWING what you shouldn’t eat because you know how it’ll make you FEEL comes in. I know I HAVE to stay away from wheat. But I ate it anyway. C’mon it’s a Frontier breakfast burrito. Who doesn’t turn that down? Yeah, I know better. So Thursday morning at Emma’s 2:30am feeding, I woke up feeling HUNGOVER! Extremely weighted down, foggy headed, joints hurting and just feeling like I could sleep another 30 hours. It set the start of my day rather slow and groggy. And of course, I knew that this would probably happen with what I ate. And it did. It was about 3:30pm before I started to “wake up.” Other than that, I have to say I am feeling so much better. It’s been just over 6 weeks since my panic attack, blood work, etc and for the first 4 weeks I focused solely on nutrition. Two weeks ago I slowly started working out again and I’ve been able to keep up with my workouts 3 times per week. I’ve been able to get to the yard which really makes my heart sing. Even just pulling weeds really soothes my soul! It’s the simple things for me and I’m super excited to keep this up! The main message here is to really track and see how certain foods make you FEEL. Do you feel bloated, exhausted, get headaches, achy joints…? Your awesome body does a great job of letting you know more than “that food doesn’t agree with me.” We just gotta listen :) Are you eating packaged foods, processed foods, and take-out on a regular basis? Continue to track and also be mindful of how you feel after each meal.  As we approach a new week let's take a look at last week.
How was your tracking? Were you able to keep up with it? If not, what did you struggle with the most? Let's assume we all did our tracking 100%. Take a look at last week and see how many meals (snacks and grazing included) were NOT on point and put a X on it. How many X's do you have for the week? For example: I would put an X on my cocoa puff snack with Sophie. I would also put an on X on Wednesday night as we had pizza. Another X for Thursday night left overs. And then another X for last night for my small scoop of ice cream, bite of chocolate cake and about 7 sips of JW Dundee Honey Brown beer. 😋 That gives me 4 X's for the week. Now reflecting back to one of the first emails about mastering the basics, I had mentioned staying on track 90% of the time. This leaves about 10% to be able to have a little bit of something a few times a week. As I look back at my week, for as often as I eat (5x's/day) I should probably only have about 3 X's on my tracking. 4 would probably be OK but pushing it to stay in that 90% range. If I were to grade myself I honestly would say I was about 85-90% on point for the week. Here's another thing to look out for though. You've got to give yourself an X for meals MISSED as well. If you're not eating breakfast, X. If you skipped lunch, X. Think of the more you eat healthy foods you eat, the more X's are allowed (within reason of course). So in my tracking, Friday wasn't a great start to my day as I didn't have my usual breakfast. I still had a fig bar and string cheese but it wasn't "the best." How can you improve for next week? Look at where your X's are and why did that happen? Birthday party? Ok I don't have to worry about that for awhile. Friday skimpy breakfast? Ok I'll make sure I'll prep the night before so I'm not grabbing whatever is in the cupboard. That should dial me back into no more than 3 X's. Is this good stuff? Let me know if it's helping. Also, a question was brought up about shakes. Do I? Should I? What kind? When? Shakes can be a wonderful thing to incorporate in your daily nutrition, especially if you find yourself skipping meals and not eating enough. I will do about 2 shakes per day. It's quick, it's easy and I know I'm not skipping a meal. I will often have my first shake in the morning while I'm working. I'll have my second shake either as a post workout recovery shake OR for dinner if we get home late. I've been using shakes for the last 15 years and have tried just about every kind. When choosing a brand make sure it aligns with your nutritional preferences. Do you need no dairy, lactose, whey, artificial sweeteners, etc? For the last year or more I've been using Orgain. I pick it up at Costco and it's an all organic planet based protein with servings of greens. No soy, lactose, whey, wheat, or artificial sweeteners. I always get the chocolate flavored and add 1/2 banana and 1 heaping tablespoon of peanut butter or almond butter. Vega is another great brand with 2 servings of greens (powdered broccoli, kale, spinach). Ideally, work on getting all of your nutrients from food. But if you are having a hard time getting that food in consistently and you do decide to use shakes as part of your daily nutrition, look for quality ingredients. A good rule of thumb, if you can't pronounce it, don't consume it!
So by now, hopefully you’re developing some good consistent habits with your tracking and allowing yourself to have a little bit of wiggle room to enjoy the foods and drinks you want. We shouldn’t have to deprive ourselves with the foods we love but learning HOW and WHEN to have them are extremely important to achieving the RESULTS you want.
The next step in this is eating until you’re 80% full. Well what does that mean? 80% full? How do I know when I’m 80% full? We live in a society where everything is rushed. We’re rushing to go somewhere, picking up the kids, making dinner, etc. Food is no exception. Generally, people are pressed for time and find themselves scarfing down their lunch or dinner just to get to the next task. We need to find a way to STOP that. You may have heard that it takes about 15-20 minutes for your brain to catch up with your stomach on satiety and it’s true. Taking the time to enjoy, savor and SLOW DOWN your meal will give your brain a chance to catch up to your stomach and avoid overeating. This is your 80% fullness. Not feeling stuffed, not feeling starved, but satisfied. This is a PRACTICE so be please be patient with it. Here are some tips with portion sizing to help with your 80% full practice:
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