**This was a training pulled from my free 4 day pop-up Nutrition Challenge!**
Ever feel like your emotional cravings are conspiring to keep you from your wellness goals? You're not alone, and this episode is your roadmap to conquering those sneaky snack attacks. I share my own battles with comfort eating and how I learned to replace those calorie-laden temptations with nourishing alternatives and activities that really fill the void. Processed foods might be a siren song for the time-crunched among us, but I'm here to navigate you towards whole, nutrient-dense options that won't slow you down or your health goals.
This chat isn't just about what to eat; it's about how to eat. Crafting a balanced plate can feel like a culinary puzzle, but I'm handing you the pieces to put it all together, ensuring that each meal powers you through your day without the sugar crash. We don't just skim over food tracking either—we dive into the nitty-gritty of serving sizes and the magic of macros, giving you the tools to enjoy your food fully and mindfully. Tune in to find out how small adjustments to your eating habits can lead to big changes in how you feel, look, and live. And get ready for some homework! I'm challenging you to pinpoint and share the nutritional hurdle that trips you up the most. Together, we're turning stumbling blocks into stepping stones for a healthier you.
**This was a training pulled from my free 4 day pop-up Nutrition Challenge!**
Ever feel like your emotional cravings are conspiring to keep you from your wellness goals? You're not alone, and this episode is your roadmap to conquering those sneaky snack attacks. I share my own battles with comfort eating and how I learned to replace those calorie-laden temptations with nourishing alternatives and activities that really fill the void. Processed foods might be a siren song for the time-crunched among us, but I'm here to navigate you towards whole, nutrient-dense options that won't slow you down or your health goals.
This chat isn't just about what to eat; it's about how to eat. Crafting a balanced plate can feel like a culinary puzzle, but I'm handing you the pieces to put it all together, ensuring that each meal powers you through your day without the sugar crash. We don't just skim over food tracking either—we dive into the nitty-gritty of serving sizes and the magic of macros, giving you the tools to enjoy your food fully and mindfully. Tune in to find out how small adjustments to your eating habits can lead to big changes in how you feel, look, and live. And get ready for some homework! I'm challenging you to pinpoint and share the nutritional hurdle that trips you up the most. Together, we're turning stumbling blocks into stepping stones for a healthier you.
Hello everyone and welcome to day three of the food freedom series. I'm sorry I am sitting on my couch and the light is a little bit different, but I just want to make sure that you could see my face. But I wanted to talk about the most common nutrition mistakes, and these are by far the most common things that I see. And the funny part about nutrition is that a lot of the times it could feel like we're doing everything right and we still aren't seeing progress, and it really just takes a couple little small tweaks and changes to really get the ball rolling right. They're almost too simple that we can't see them, and sometimes it takes the eye of a trained professional like myself to really see it, just from doing so many clients, training hundreds of clients over the years and seeing what they do. So let's dive into these mistakes. Hopefully you can identify some of them with yourself and then make those changes moving forward and hopefully that's going to accelerate your progress. Okay, so nutrition mistakes.
Speaker 1:
Number one is emotional eating. This is a really big one. Women may use food as a coping mechanism for stress, boredom or other emotions. This can result in overeating and consuming unhealthy, high calorie foods that provide temporary comfort but ultimately sabotage their health goals, right? So emotional eating can be really complex and I think, getting to the root of where that emotion stems from. Is it a bored, boredom response? Is it a stress response? Is it a happy response? Is it a comfort response? Is it I deserve this response? Counteract that with you. Know something else whether you replace it.
Speaker 1:
I often recommend to my clients replace that, you know, stress, boredom, emotional, whatever eating is, with a healthier food. So you are still kind of doing that habit, but we are obviously nourishing our body and not, you know, eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's. Or you can replace that habit with something that's not eating related altogether, and it's really important to kind of catch yourself in the moment. So you're like, ooh, I'm feeling stressed, I'm randomly having this hunger craving. Let me just get a bowl of fruit, drink some water, and then I'm going to go read a book, or I'm going to go for a run, or I'm going to go for a walk outside, or I'm going to go clean my house, listen to a podcast, dance it out with music. You can replace it with something else and, yes, this is a skill like anything else and it takes time. You see the trend with this a lot of these things are skills. It's not just you're going to pick it up one day. You're going to be magically perfect and all of your problems are going to go away. Yes, you have to work at it, but when you establish this, it's essentially effortless and it just becomes a part of your routine every day and you're so much better for it, so it's a hundred percent worth it. Okay, so that is number one emotional eating.
Speaker 1:
Two over-reliance on processed foods. This is another really big one. I see Busy schedules because I tend to train busy women often lead women to rely on convenient processed foods that are high in refined sugars, unhealthy fats and additives. These foods lack essential nutrients and can contribute to weight gain and other health issues. So let me give you a little bit of context with this.
Speaker 1:
Processed foods are not bad. There's not really any good or bad foods. There are more nutrient-dense foods and less nutrient-dense foods. And processed foods tend to be less nutrient-dense because they strip certain nutrients from them to make them more shelf-stable. They might add stuff to them and, like I said, you kind of just lack certain things because they need to be quick, convenient, easy to heat up, shelf stable, taste good, all those things. So we lose some things in there and they usually, like they said, have unhealthy fats, additives, sugars, carbs. They're usually high calorie because they're meant to satiate you temporarily and when we eat these processed foods we just lack certain nutrients. Our hunger cues get messed up and if you eat these all day, every day, that's when you tend to get these cravings. You don't feel satisfied because we're not adding enough whole, real foods into the mix. Right Now.
Speaker 1:
There are workarounds around this. I work with a lot of shift nurses, generally just very busy people that are always on the go and they need grab and go options. But there's a way to do it. You know there's frozen chicken out there, right, frozen grilled chicken that you can heat up. There's minute rice in the cups, there's microwavable veggies and you can still get nutrient dense foods on the go. You know rice cookers, crock pot meals there's so many options out there. I could just, you know, name them off.
Speaker 1:
But if you're eating, you know a protein bar with every meal, a protein shake with every meal you know you're going for I can't even think like quest protein chips, just like bagged quick process things. It's going to be empty foods, even though you're hitting the calories, you're hitting your protein. It's like try to have a 200 calorie, 20 grams of protein protein bar and then eat a chicken breast. That's 140 calories with 25 grams of protein. Tell me which one's going to keep you fuller longer and keep you satiated. Right, probably the chicken breast.
Speaker 1:
And again, not saying that the protein bars, the shakes or whatever are bad, but they're meant to be used more in moderation, as a supplement, not like I'm going to eat this for every meal. Right, protein bar, protein shake, your protein chips. They're like a good snack, like, hey, I need a high protein snack. Or I'm having a sandwich. Let me pair the chips, you know, and this sandwich has veggies on it and meat and quality bread. Let me pair this with some chips and maybe some fruit on the side. Right, so it's meant to be complimentary. So think about that. Think about your processed foods and how you can maybe make the switch and cut back on those. If you need help, shoot me a message. We can always brainstorm with that, okay.
Speaker 1:
Number three ignoring protein intake. Again, you probably feel like protein is being like pounded into your brain from everywhere on the internet, everywhere in general. Even the big name brands are, you know, playing on this marketing scheme Like it's high protein. Check your nutrition labels because something will say high protein and it has like six grams of protein. I don't consider something to have high protein unless it has 20 grams, at least 20 grams. If it does not have 20 grams high protein. Unless it has 20 grams, at least 20 grams. If it does not have 20 grams, it's not high protein. Okay, a lot of them will slap high protein on their meals that, like normally, were just regular, they didn't change anything on it, and they'll just be like high protein.
Speaker 1:
So, yes, be very weary of the marketing schemes out there, but pretty much, protein is essential. It's crucial for muscle repair, metabolism, satiety. Yet many women don't prioritize it enough in their diets and I think there's also this underlying thing of like, oh, I don't want to get big and bulky If I eat all this protein. It's hard to get a lot of protein. So definitely prioritize it, and you know there's always that oh well, is it bad for your kidneys? No, unless you have some sort of underlying kidney disease, you're fine with that.
Speaker 1:
Okay, ideally we want to go for a gram per pound of ideal body weight. So you know, if your goal weight's 140 pounds, you want 140 grams. But look at where you're at now and slowly build up to that. And I think we talked about that earlier in day one with the protein, but without an adequate protein intake, you are going to struggle to keep your muscles. You're going to get that like skinny fat. Look, that's why, like, you're losing weight. You may be lifting weights but you're like why am I still kind of flabby and like I'm not seeing that definition and the curves that I want? You probably need more protein, right? You're going to lack feeling satisfied after meals. Again, this leads to the late night snacking, binging, cravings and just ultimately overeating. You try so hard throughout the day and then you're like I'm so starved. Or the end of the week, and if you really make that intention to do, you know, tackle all these things that we're going through a lot of that stuff virtually goes away. Okay, so that's number three.
Speaker 1:
Number four not drinking enough water. Oh, I thought I had my water bottle next to me. I'm sad. Dehydration is very common among women I've seen, especially for older people. I've had every ambulance call we've had at the gym has been due to dehydration. I've had people get dizzy because of not drinking enough water. Like you need freaking water.
Speaker 1:
Your body is made of 75% water, so drink it. You can have low energy, your brain function could get foggy. It messes with your digestion. It makes it harder to maintain a healthy lifestyle in general. I've had many clients who come to me drinking 20, 25 ounces of water. We get them up to like at least 64 plus ounces regularly and they're like wow, I noticed such a difference. Like I have more energy. I'm going to the bathroom. It helps me flush out things. One of my clients she said like her contacts don't stick to her eyes as much because her eyeballs are hydrated. Like it's just crazy what it can do. It makes your skin glowy and dewy. Um, it's just fantastic. You need to be drinking enough water and you are allowed to flavor it. There's no shame in that. Um, you know, add a little flavoring to your water. I like the true lemon packets or any, like the powdered stuff. Drink your water, okay.
Speaker 1:
Number five is fad dieting. Women often fall for trendy diets and promise quick results, but are unsustainable in the long term. These fad diets often eliminate entire. Hey look, we found this new thing, this new thing from Africa, deep in the woods or it's like in the rainforest of Brazil and like, if you take it, you're going to magically lose all this weight. And no, no, I've yet to find something that works.
Speaker 1:
Honestly, aside from just really just eating healthy, building up the momentum and continuing doing it day in, day out, that is what is going to work and why. Why you literally cannot stick to something now as it is. Why would you try to pick some complicated thing? I've heard all these people doing these crazy things like I only eat meat on this day and then I'm going to do higher calories and carbs on this day and lower calories and carbs. I'm going to track this, but they don't want to like do something simpler. Like, no, don't do these crazy complicated things. It's not worth it. You're not going to sustain it. You're going to be miserable. Like when you pick a diet, I want you to ask yourself can I do this for the rest of my life? Next time you look at a trendy diet, say, will I be able to follow through with this for the rest of my life, through vacations, through desserts, through family meetings? Um, enjoying yourself? You want the ben and jerry's. Can you sustain it? If the answer is no, do not do it, okay.
Speaker 1:
Number six um, underestimating portion sizes. This is a big one too. Portion distortion is a common issue, with women often underestimating how much they're actually eating. This can lead to consuming more calories than needed and hinder weight management efforts. And this is exactly why I encourage people to track their food and weigh certain foods in grams, at least for a little bit, so you can see and you can experiment. You can go wow, I've done this with shredded cheese, I've done it with peanut butter, yogurt. Time and time again, when I weigh out a serving, I'm always like, wow, that's probably not what I would have eyeballed. So keep trying to do that so you can truly get an idea of what you're eating. Because nine times out of 10, what we're eyeballing, we're either extremely underestimating, extremely overestimating. It's not accurate. So just weigh it. That is the most accurate method. Okay, seven neglecting self-care.
Speaker 1:
Women may prioritize taking care of others over themselves because, yay, that is our standard. We are the homemaker, we are the housewife, we just take care of the kids, the family. We are meant to make everybody happy and look beautiful and run a successful business and bring in money and do all this stuff except take care of ourselves in the end, right? So this leads to poor eating habits and neglecting your own nutritional needs. It's essential for women to prioritize self-care and nourish their bodies properly to maintain overall health and well-being. And let me say that I always look at this from a selfish place, but also it serves others. I always put myself first, first 100. I put myself first over you guys, over my clients, over my husband, over my family.
Speaker 1:
Because let me tell you, if I don't show up for myself and I'm not my healthiest self, I'm not going to be my best self for everybody else. Can you imagine if you're sleep deprived, stressed out, strung out your cups empty? You're going to be cranky, you're going to be miserable, you're going to be tiredy. You're going to be miserable. You're going to be tired. You're not going to be able to give a good experience to your kids, to your husband. You're going to piss off your husband. You're going to piss off your family. No-transcript, right? So it's better if you're just proactive and take a little bit of time for yourself every single day to be your best, you rest up for you, so you're not a crazy woman, so you can show up as your best self.
Speaker 1:
I've literally done this with people. I've said hey, like you know, I can't get back to you right now. I need to rest. I need to do this. Let me get back to you tomorrow when I'm in a better spot, better headspace, so we can talk about this more.
Speaker 1:
It's easy as that, okay, number eight in balanced meals. A balanced meal is ideally composed of protein, carbs, veggies and or fruits and healthy fats. The less elements a meal has, the more likely it is to be used up quickly and leave you feeling unsatisfied and wanting more. Creating balanced meals slows digestion, balances blood sugar and keeps hunger at bay, right. So the difference is I want you to try this next time you're snacking.
Speaker 1:
Your snacks are probably carbs. You know like you might be having pretzels okay, straight carbs. You're having a granola bar pretty much straight carbs. You know anything that's snacky, it's carbs and it's going to burn up really fast. But if we pair that snack with something that's protein, maybe you throw in a protein shake. Maybe you throw in a Greek yogurt that's like 20 grams, 25 grams Um, maybe you do eat a little bit of chicken or meat or whatever with it, um, but something regardless, that's protein and you can even throw a little bit of fats in there. Watch how much longer it keeps you satisfied versus just having straight carbs. This is what I tell my clients when they go out to eat at big events and stuff like you can have your cakes, you can have your cookies, your mashed potatoes, whatever, but make sure you're stacking on the protein to like the big meals. I know Easter is coming up, you know make sure you load up on the ham and you can still have your you know scalloped potatoes and whatever dishes that you have, but also have some veggies in there and balance that plate out, because you're going to feel a lot more satisfied. You're not going to want to go up for seconds or thirds or overeat as much because you're creating that balanced meal.
Speaker 1:
Ok, and then, last but not least, number 10, not accurately tracking your food. So eyeballing or even using measuring cups to measure your food will lead to less accurate tracking. Less accurate tracking means a greater likelihood of not hitting your macro goals, your calorie goals, whatever they are, and this means your progress is going to be slower. So weighing your food in grams when it makes sense, you know we don't have to be crazy and like weigh out our Oreos by grams. I always use Oreos because, like I'm just used to seeing, like hey, a serving size is two cookies, you know. So it's very direct. But like weigh out things that are more fluid and like can pile up and you can't like grab a serving of it, right. But weighing food in grams when it makes sense is the most accurate way to track food to assure you are getting the right serving size.
Speaker 1:
Because I see it, I see that people are just not. They're either forgetting to log every single thing that they eat, because they log at the end of the day, or they try to log from the day before and they're trying to think back of what they're eating. They just don't track the portion sizes properly. Or maybe they're not breaking down the meal properly. Like you might just log, like oh, I had a salad, but you don't break down the items in that salad, because one salad could be 500 calories, one salad could be 300 calories, one salad could be a thousand calories, depends on the dressing, the toppings, all those things. So you got to itemize your meal instead of looking for the bulk meal to make it the most accurate, right? So you could really be off and it's okay.
Speaker 1:
Like, I'm not saying not tracking is bad. You just need to go in contextual, wise, context wise, whatever you want to say. You need to know that the less that you are tracking accurately like specifically weighing your food, breaking down what you're eating you will most likely get results slower. And again, there's nothing wrong with that. You can eyeball it. You can use the hand portion method, like we were talking about. You can use measuring cups, and that's amazing steps in the right direction.
Speaker 1:
You're going to be making healthier choices. You probably are going to be eating less because you're more aware of what you're eating. You're going to be making the right choices. You're going to feel more energized. You're going to feel better. Your sleep's going to be better. You're gonna feel fuller longer.
Speaker 1:
You probably are going to lose some weight, but it's not going to be as cut and dry as tracking your food going hey, I want to lose a pound a week, so I need to eat this many calories less. This is what I'm doing. If you track 100%, you will see those changes week after week. Okay. So just something to keep in mind with that and where your mindset's at Okay. So that's all I have for today, for the 10 common nutrition mistakes your little homework is. I want you to comment below what is the nutrition mistake that you struggle with the most on this list? Just share it with us here. It's kind of holding you accountable to be like, hey, this is what I'm gonna start working on, so share with me your most common nutrition mistake from this list and then you're gonna work on it, right All.