Nutrition Mindset

Are you feeling stuck? Maybe you have big goals for yourself and you just don't know where to start.  Or you're feeling overwhelmed by the many things you've tried that aren't working and you're just feeling stuck, how do we move through that? The solution: You make ONE small decision. "But that small decision won't give me quick, immediate results!" Yes, I know. You probably feel like you have to do something big, something dramatic, something that will for sure show you changes and immediate feedback because you want results right now. Honestly, this just comes down to making a mental shift.  You have to be willing to do things differently.  You have to do the small adjustment and stick with it. You can't do the "small adjustment thing" but expect it to get the big adjustment results that the "dramatic adjustment thing" would. For example, drinking water is the smallest, most powerful adjustment you can make to your daily rout...

I truly believe the world would be a happier place and on it's way to world peace if everyone just ate more food; wait... ate more healthy food! How are you when you don't eat enough?  I am annoyed, frustrated, irritated and tired.  Pretty sure that describes the generalization of people's moods on the daily. We talk about wars and controlling the nukes, but who's talking about eating breakfast, lunch and dinner on a level of world peace?  Wouldn't that be a fun news headline- "Today at the UN meeting, world leaders discussed what healthy foods they had to eat and how happy and patient they were with each others' differences." Think about yourself personally.  Have you ever connected your mood to how much you have eaten in a day?  If you skipped breakfast, grabbed fast food for lunch and then ate a big restaurant dinner while mixing in caffeine and sugar snacks to keep you going, how was your energy?  How was your patience tolerance during those ...

Why do we hold on to a system, or habits, or way or living that is not helping us improve? We all do it. Why is change so hard, even when change would mean something so much better?! I'm going to jump right into an example here: "I can't eat high carbs, I'll gain weight.  I need to keep my calories low and I need to get on the scale morning and night to make sure I'm staying on track." If this is you, I'm not picking on you.  I chose that statement because it's what I hear almost everyone say, who's struggling to find happiness and balance with their eating habits.  It's a very common solution to think you need; that solution being titled "cut more out of my diet." And that solution may work for some people, but if it's not working for you, why haven't you tried something new?  Why is it so scary to give up something that is not helping us improve?  If a low carb, low calorie, high stress attitude towards food is not giving yo...

Why is it so hard to do the ONE thing we know we need to do? Why is it so hard to apologize?  Instead we place blame, point fingers, make excuses, tell lies, and risk losing a friendship or relationship because we think it's easier to avoid the one thing that would make everything better- just apologize and take responsibility- but it makes us uncomfortable so we avoid it. We know that fitness is mandatory to a healthy life.  We must move our bodies, we must challenge our muscles and cardiovascular system to be healthy and live a long, vibrant life.  Instead it's far to common to keep searching for the quick fix, fake solution that seems to answer all our problems.  We waste time, money and effort chasing the illusive magic pill when if you had just applied yourself to a solid fitness program you'd see results.  Instead of always feeling defeated when that "magic fix" didn't work, you could have created good habits by just choosing to do the one thing- you...

Feeling lost and unsure how to start? Tired of yo-yo dieting? Feeling overwhelmed?  Wishing you could be happy and calm when you talk about what you plan to eat for the day?   Well, first know that it's a process to create changes that last.  You won't get it all correct right from the start so be patient with yourself.  Celebrate your wins, stop counting your losses or measuring "how far you still have to go."  It's all about having the right mindset.  You can have all the facts, but unless you accept to change how you think, you will revert back to old habits.  It's going to make you uncomfortable, change always does, for every human, but you can do this!! A diet program should teach you HOW to eat, not tell you.  And I use the word "diet" meaning what you eat- not what you have to avoid.  Society negatively uses the word "diet" to mean what you are "not eating." (ie: I can't have carbs on my diet). Well, diet is literally...

We are trained to think we need a fancy start date to make something successful. Hypothetically, what if I said this new fancy plan I have for you guarantees all your dreams will come true if you start on a Wednesday at 1:37pm on November 8th?  How willing are you to join?  How uncomfortable does that start date make you? Who starts to be healthy on a Wednesday, everyone knows you can only be successful if you start on Monday.  And whoa, starting in the afternoon- that's when I have my afternoon junk food snack so I can't start then.  ANNND it starts in November, gosh that's too close to the holidays, I can't start then. {but whoa, remember I just GUARANTEED you success} If you're the person that finds faults and excuses to not start, then you will never be successful.  You have to get out of your own way.  Success doesn't happen because you started on a Monday on January 1st.  Success happens because you took action NOW! You don't need a bunc...

When I say "food," what comes to mind?  Do you think of your favorite food?  Do you think of the food you are currently hungry for?  Do you think fear and have no idea what food is? Do you think of food in numbers- as in how many calories, how much fat, protein, and carbohydrates are you consuming?  Or how long until you need to eat again? Or do you think energy and nutrients? Well, there is no one right answer, because food is all of those things.  It is our favorite meals, it's what you're craving right now to satisfy a desire, and it's comprised of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.  Food is also comprised of vitamins and it's important to think of food as energy and nutrients because that's what it comes down to: food provides you energy.  I hope food doesn't cause you to panic, but I know for many people, it does.  It's overwhelming.  It's confusing.  It's too stressful.  Well, it doesn't have to be as long as you're will...

The problem with our culture is we treat everything like a secret. "What's your diet secrets?" "What's your fitness secrets?" "Health secrets from Hollywood celebrities" "This ONE THING we just learned is your secret to success" "Click here to reveal the secret to staying younger and having a better love life" "The secret to 6 pack abs" I could go on and on.  Our society is obsessed with attention.  Everyone wants you to click their link so they will say whatever buzz words they can to swing your opinions in their direction hoping that you haven't heard of the secret they claim to reveal; usually hoping to sell you something on this amazing discovery.  This creates the impression that it's impossible for you to get healthy, or have great skin, or have strong abs unless you uncover all these secrets. Educate yourself.  You do this by keeping an open mind and reading quality resources.  When you come ac...

You don't get to choose when your body makes changes.  A major adjustment that will help, well probably everyone, is to hear that we need to make sure our expectations align with reality.  Just because you started a new fitness plan doesn't mean you have visible muscle changes next week. (I'm sorry it doesn't work that way).  You may feel sore and perhaps feel like you should look different, but physiologically you cannot speed up a process that takes a minimum of 4-6 weeks before anything will start to resemble a change; and even that is pushing it.  Let's reasonably adjust that to 8 weeks of consistent healthy behaviors before you go over-analyzing, judging yourself and changing the routine because you're frustrated you aren't getting results. Even more magnified now in our immediacy driven culture, we think if we do some great changes for a day, or even a week, we should reap immediate rewards.  Guess what, you are, you're just looking for the wrong w...

Do you tend to have an attitude of "I will learn and figure this out" or do you run away from things you don't know? Answer honestly.  It's human nature to ignore the things we don't understand or fear.  So honestly, everyone could answer "run away."  You have to practice consistently creating a mentality that embraces learning and improving when faced with something that makes you uncomfortable. I'm going to say that one more time, " You have to practice consistently creating a mentality that embraces learning and improving when faced with something that makes you uncomfortable." Don't just push nutrition aside if you're not good at it; you have to adopt the right mentality. Yes, it's much easier to just go through the motions following your routinely habits. Taking an effort to learn and make changes is tough, it may even be terrifying or overwhelming for you. Remember, we're not going for perfect. Your attempts do not ...

What is your nutrition identity? Said another way, "How do you think about food?" or "What drives your eating habits?" How we see ourselves controls our actions and decisions through the day. Let me give you some examples: Do you motivate yourself with guilt? If yes, making decisions is going to come from a negative place, always making yourself feel bad and guilty so that you are forced to make good decisions.  That's a lot of self-imposed stress! Do you feel that food is an enemy and it keeps you from getting what you want or looking the way you want?  Ok, food is literally just energy, you must consume it if you want to live. To have a negative outlook on something that is vital for life is going to drive your decision making very differently than if you appreciated all that food can do for you. Are you naturally thin and think "I can eat whatever I want," so you never pay attention to the quality of the food you are eating? That identity, that thou...

 Let's jump right into this- your mindset towards food needs to be positive.  If the idea of even talking about food makes you shut down, get mad, get defensive, or makes you want to click away from reading, then that's the first recognized mental block.  Please stay with me.  Our society puts so much stress on perfection and then bombards us with way too many choices, all of which are proven wrong by other options.  There's no way to be perfect with too much confusion and way too much criticism for your decisions.  How do you change your attitude towards food then?  You become confident in your choices and you don't worry about the criticism and judgments from society (easier said than done, but don't worry, that's what I'm here to help fix, you don't already have to know how to do that). This was a disgraceful ad on my Facebook the other day.  Now exercise is bad advice and it's all about hormones?!?!  What they are not telling you is that ...