We all get stuck. And sometimes we push passed with great victory and sometimes we shut down. My central nervous system’s preferred method of dealing with “stuck ness” is almost always shut down. Give up. Or at least take a big break, regroup and then change everything. But knowing this, I’ve sabotaged a lot of my greatest strides by changing everything. It wasn’t everything that was wrong, it was one or two things. So instead I’ve learned to shift one thing at a time, over time and it’s kept me from the dreaded “start from scratch” cycle we all find ourselves on from time to time. Our bodies and lives have patterns. And really great reasons for those patterns that make up our systems. Which is why I’m sharing with you my 13 top ways to change your life beyond food. Don’t ditch the system. Shift the patterns.
1. Sitting. For every minute of the day you are watching TV or mindlessly scrolling, you need to be up and moving. Of course there are excuses. It IS cold out, it is hard to move when it’s warm and cozy in the fuzzy jammies, it is darker earlier, it is really comfortable on the couch or in bed and so many other reasons. Of course, there are times when you need to rest but most likely it’s just easier to say, “tomorrow”. And tomorrow becomes a big cloud over you of endless cycle. If a class time/appointment keeps you accountable to moving, sign up. If walking with a friend feels good, find a couple in case one decides to push it off until “tomorrow”. If rowing, walking on your treadmill or playing catch with your dog during the commercial breaks feels good, great, let the commercials be a welcome break. Get a treadmill and use it. Get shoes and a coat and go for a walk outside. Set up the level of what you will actually do for success. If you know you are not used to walking and you hate the cold, a goal of 4 miles a day is a failed plan. You and your body must choose the path of least resistance for change to feel do-able. Start with one small distance, time or activity. And let someone know you’re plan so they can celebrate with you as you complete your baby steps (this is important because we are more likely to stick with something if we tell others we will)!
2. Boredom. We all get bored for different reasons and in different ways. It could be little bits of bored that add up, like I just have a few minutes here so I guess I’ll check social media or grab chips to pass the time to BIG bored, like I really hate my soul-sucking job, life, endlessly toxic spouse or color of my bedroom walls. We are taught from a young age that being bored equals uncomfortable, fix it, fill it, numb it out, get busy covering it up. But the real deal is- boredom is your teacher, if you’re brave enough to listen to it. What exactly do you fear or not want to feel when boredom hits? What if you felt it and did nothing about it? And if you had to do something about it, what if you picked up a pen, a paintbrush, a pile of rubber bands, magnets, lego blocks or went for a walk like when you were a kid so you could ACTUALLY listen to your boredom. Here’s a big question: What if excess weight was stored creativity waiting to be explored?
3. Sleep amount and quality matters. Every night, our body repairs itself in millions of ways. Your body works hard to kill cancer cells, replace the fluid EVERY single night in between your vertebrae (if you’ve drank enough water- getting to that soon) so your spine stays flexible and strong. It also does this really cool thing with 2 majorly important hormones called Leptin and Ghrelin. Leptin tells your body when you are full, satisfied, time to stop eating. Ghrelin tells your body when you are hungry. When your body doesn’t get enough sleep, these hormones don’t perform their job as efficiently as possible and boom, the next day you are hungry no matter what you eat and/or you keep feeling hungry. Falling asleep with electronics means your brain thinks it needs to be alert when you are trying to wind down so it takes longer (if you ever) get to REM sleep where these processes to repair and replenish your body takes place. Another harmful affect from electronics is the blue light emitted which has been linked to obesity. Find a new way to start teaching your body how to fall asleep so you aren’t sabotaging even the best workouts during the day.
4. A part of you feels good being overweight. *This section is not referencing those who have a medical condition causing your bodies to keep you from losing weight.* Sometimes, even though it isn’t something our culture doesn’t want to admit, being overweight makes a part of us feel better. If you are someone who has grown up with food being love (literally) like I have, it makes total sense that also looking the same as people we love makes us feel more loved and connected. When people comment about “looking really good” because we’ve lost weight, it doesn’t always feel good inside. Sometimes it feels really vulnerable and like everyone’s waiting and watching for you to fail. Sometimes attention, even good attention feels uncomfortable. Sometimes, weighing more or weighing less means we are expected to do things or show up for things we don’t want to or aren’t used to showing up for like playing with kids or grandkids when we don’t want to or know how or being intimate with someone when we have underlying trauma keeping us from feeling safe to do so. Excess weight can be a protective barrier from the world. There are many reasons why this happens and the worst thing anyone who’s experiencing this needs is advise, “fixing”, diet plans or judgement.
5. Your hormones have changed. It’s actually a small percentage of people that have hormone issues so severe that it’s keeping them from losing weight. Sure, weight loss can be slow and it’s hard to stick with something when you don’t see huge improvements. For 29 days of eating the right foods for your body, exercising, sleeping, de-stressing and taking care of yourself you may look like your old self and on the 30th day you see and feel progress. Sometimes it’s the 28th day we give up. Hormone fluctuations can make it harder to lose weight. It’s way MORE likely that your body has indeed changed, but that you are still applying old outdated ways to a your new age. For example, maybe you’ve eaten whatever you want your entire life but now that your 40, the pounds creep on mysteriously. You may think “nothing has changed” but you might be sitting more, have more or different stress in your life, have more or less demands for your time, have more food than you used to eat, drive instead of walk places, watch more tv than you used to. Your body changes as you change and there are as many right diets as people on the planet. Who’s job is it to figure out what your body needs now to get the results you want? Yours. Is it a process? Absolutely. Is worth all that figuring out? YES! Would it be easier to do a “crash” diet? Of course, but then there’s a strong chance you will gain it back because I don’t know about you but there’s a three year old in me that forever says, “You can’t tell me what to do! I’m going to get ice cream as soon as you leave.” Eating for what your body needs nutritionally and energetically (eat to live) is the biggest part of the food/life balance and eating for what feels yummy and delicious to you (live to eat) is a smaller part of the food/life balance. Have a full panel of blood work done regularly with your physician. Small changes can be early indicators for pro action.
6. Water. Water needs are different for every person. How much does your body need? Quick test questions: Are you going to the bathroom several times a day and is your urine almost clear? Does your skin stand up or retract slowly when you pinch a little on the back of your hand? Do you feel like your skin is the Sahara desert? Do you find yourself hungry when you’re actually thirsty?
Salt and alcohol are huge ways to dehydrate your body. Side note, did you know that if you add vinegar instead of salt, it tricks your taste buds into thinking something is saltier?
Aim for between half your body weight in ounces of water and up to an ounce per pound. Gulp!
7. Fiber. As adults, our bodies need 25-30 grams of soluble and insoluble combined fiber every single day. Go ahead and try and figure out how much fiber was in that iceberg lettuce salad for lunch, trigger warning, it’s less than 1 gram per cup which is why you don’t feel full very long and then probably go eat something that sabotages your health journey. So, if you aren’t someone who can eat an entire field of kale today, try adding in other bigger sources of fiber like hemp seeds, flaxseeds, chia seeds, gluten free oats, farro, kale (of course), broccoli, brussel sprouts and if nothing else, you can buy organic psyllium husk (fiber) by the bag from Amazon. Fiber moves things through and if your not getting enough, especially if you’ve had your gallbladder taken out, you need a helping hand on waste management. Start slow, it can be a big investment of time and energy on the toilet if you go “all in or out” on the first day. Try to get as much of your fiber, vitamins and nutrients through food, our bodies actually extract very little of fiber, vitamins and nutrients through pills, it has to come from food.
8. A blood sugar roller coaster could be causing your body to become Diabetic. Full disclosure, I’ve had Type 1 Diabetes for 38 years, I have tried every single way you can imagine to kill myself with the foods and drinks. It’s been a full circle journey and I’ve learned a lot over almost four decades. Here’s a snapshot and how your body may be struggling to keep up. Just because you haven’t been diagnosed with Diabetes, doesn’t mean you don’t have it. One in three people have some form of Diabetes right now and one in five don’t know they have it. Within 30 seconds of eating food or drinking, your body starts sensing what’s happening and sends out a hormone called insulin from your pancreas to start counteracting the carbohydrates (carbohydrates turn into sugar in our body). If you’ve only ever looked at the sugar content of a food or drink, you are missing what’s hiding in carbohydrates (because our body’s turn carbohydrates turn into sugar if that is our fuel source). For example, a bowl of rice has no added sugar but 45 carbohydrates. That means your body has to produce enough insulin to bring your blood sugar back to normal to balance that food. It’s important to note (and why it’s so confusing) that not all carbohydrates are created equal. Just like all calories are not created equal. What your body does with a calorie from a piece of salmon is different than what your body does with a calorie from a Twinkie. Where your body gets it’s fuel from matters! Carbohydrates that work for most body’s systems are ones that are called “complex” carbohydrates from foods like vegetables and whole grains and get even better when paired with fats found in nuts, fish, flaxseed, olive oil, chia seeds and organic butter in appropriate portions. Many generations ago, we moved a lot more during the day. But because we aren’t spending our days running from saber-toothed tigers or traveling over mountains for days in search of water, we don’t need as many carbohydrates as our western society has set us up to so easily become accustomed (and addicted) to. When your body is asked to produce insulin all the time to battle excess carbs not burnt off by exercise, it becomes tired, resistant and unable to keep up with the demand. And over time, that is how your body becomes Diabetic causing you to struggle to lose weight because it cannot rid your cells and organs of excess sugar anymore. Day by day choices add up and it doesn’t mean you ever have to give up your favorite foods or drinks. But shifting how much, the types of foods and the times you eat can take you from barely surviving to thriving.
9. You’ve given up. It’s hard to guard your eating needs, time and habits fiercely. No one else will fight for your needs, wants and desires like you. I spent much of my life trying not to be different because that equaled questions, looks, “special” treatment, judgement and criticism. It makes sense to give up when everyone else is eating, drinking, something else. It makes sense to not go to the class, gym or walk when no one else is. It makes sense to not ask for something special on your plate or to just go ahead eat something that sabotages your new you. I’ve allowed others comfort, convenience and criticisms to be more important than my health a million times over. I’ve chosen me last. It was more than food, it was what I believed I deserved and what might get me liked and accepted. And a part of me gave up on me, it was too exhausted to fight for my eating needs, time and habits and I just didn’t have the energy to try again. Until I decided to. Until I allowed myself the permission to be different. I had to learn and heal why my old self felt like it wasn’t worthy of being all of me and why I felt like I had to explain my choices. I had to face my fears and show up in spaces no one else would ever understand. I had to get out of my own way. That was life (and body changing).
10. Stress is stored as belly fat. Stress can be good. Good stress is a healthy workout, a new job or a party coming up you’re looking forward to. Our bodies are designed to experience stress and produces mental and physical responses to it every second. Processes of balancing stress that we don’t even see. We can’t measure truly stress but you can feel it. Living with a high level of stress all the time teaches your body to battle the stress first and take care of the other necessary systems for body function second. In long term stress, the body often becomes addicted to the cortisol caused by experiencing stress and we can’t stop. Think: never shutting off the news, always running late but don’t know why, engaging in relationships that always feel like you’re the victim, hating a job but never looking for ways to do something else or make changes. Stress is sneaky and can become big and comfortable in our lives without even realizing how big it really is. Over time, the body shuts down and conditions such as arthritis, adrenal fatigue, metabolic disorders, immune dysfunction, cancer, heart disease, auto-immune diseases or depression, anxiety or your parts develop coping mechanisms to shift, not actually process stress, through some addictions such as alcohol, food or shopping. Even thinking about stress can be stressful. Instead of shaming our stressed parts, invite these really big, frustrated, overwhelming feelings in and breathe. Listen to what those feelings have to say and what they’re concerned about. Just notice. If it feels right, find a way to release those feelings into an energy like going for a walk, breathing, journaling, resting, taking a cold shower, meditating, calling a friend, sitting next to essential oils, a candle or playing music. Remind yourself, it’s just one part of your being, you are not your stress and you can control what happens next.
11. You can’t or don’t want to do it alone. I totally get it. We can literally be our own worst enemy when it comes to taking care of ourselves. You can google any diet, workout or newest anti-aging pill, think about it and then still eat the bag of chips, skip the workout and forget the newest health hack before you set your phone down. Finding someone in your corner that’s where you want to be, that doesn’t try and tell you what to do, be or eat but instead helps you find what’s truly right and good for your body and your life is KEY. Without shame, deprivation or bootcamps. The diet industry doesn’t want you to know that your body’s response to food hinges on just 3 variables: the type of food you eat, the amount of food you eat and the times you eat. That’s it. If you have to workout every single day to maintain your ideal body weight or if you’re working out and you don’t see/feel your body change, you are eating the wrong foods. As a Diabetic for almost 40 years, that took me decades to figure out. And I didn’t want to do militant exercises that broke my body down or feel like I couldn’t have a cookie or like I’d have to follow someone else’s rigid plan. I wanted to feel like I could create my best self, in my own skin and feel free in the experiences I wanted to be having in my life. No to rigidity and yes to freedom. This transformation literally saved my life and helped me become the Health/Life Coach I am today. I help women over 40 who have given everything to everyone else, who are tired of feeling defeated, frustrated, uncomfortable in their clothes who want to feel safe to be all of themselves, to feel the freedom to be ok around triggering foods, to feel strong, passionate and powerful and to keep the flame going within long after our work together. You don’t have to keep forcing yourself to get up and do the same numbing cycle, going to the motions again and again, with nothing changing.
12. How do you want to be paid? What if you were the CEO of you. How do you like the pay and benefits you’re getting right now? Everything that enters your world is pay. The news that’s left on in the background is paying you _________. The night out with friends connecting over old stories is paying you __________. The amount of access your work has to your free time is paying you ____________. The amount of time on social media is paying you ___________. The foods you ate yesterday are paying you __________. The calendar that’s super full is paying you _________. The unfinished projects are paying you __________. The ways you volunteer to take care of, nurse, mother, give your time and energy to ________ is paying you _________. Time in your yoga or pilates class, on a hike or playing with your kids is paying you ________.
In what ways are you getting a payoff for things you don’t really want in your life anymore? Get curious about everything. Interrupt the patterns that seem like unspoken rules in your life and notice why you really do what you do.
What would happen if you didn’t do that thing? Some of my biggest fears showed up when I asked myself that. And if it’s really scary, it’s the perfect place to start.
13. Slow down. How fast are you eating? Do you inhale your food as your driving to the next activity or hoovering a packaged food in front of the TV? If so, you’re body may not be recognizing that you are even eating and may not send the signals that you are full, until you’re too full. Connect with your table, the chair, the napkin, the fork, the plate, the flavors and colors, the process it got to be in front of you. Spend a minute in gratitude for what you are giving your body (no matter what it is). Research has shown that this process actually energetically primes our primal body for digestion. Try and stretch your meals to at least 20 minutes, set your fork down in between bites, drink water in between bites, stop, rather than keep picking at the food when you are almost full.
Only 1 spot available for my January 2022 One on One, Take Back Your Life 12 Week total Mind, Body and Soul Health/Life Transformation. Together we will create the you you want to be, free the chains of the mental and physical weight holding you back and find the keys to unlocking how to be present, lighter, freer, more energetic and excited about the life you want to live one step at a time.
This experience is unlike anything else out there and you are the greatest investment you could make. If you think this is a perfect fit for you, hit reply and let’s talk!
Happy New Year, beautiful.
Xoxo,
Christy