March 2024

This week I challenge you to really think about what food you are eating and when/why you are eating it. Are you eating to fuel your body with nutritious food or are you eating for other reasons?

This is definitely a challenge for me. I am a bored, stressed, lazy eater.

• Bored: Grab popcorn or something while I am watching TV. Especially those cooking shows. They make me hungry, but I LOVE them.
• Stressed: Had a stressful day at work or a stressful meeting. I “reward” myself with a snickers bar or something unhealthy. “I deserve it for putting up with it…”. lol. Or at least that is what I tell myself.
• Lazy: I know the way I should eat, but it takes work to do that. You have to plan ahead to make sure you have the food, cook the food, and then do the dishes. It sometimes easier just to go out to eat or throw in a frozen pizza.

Now am I this way all the time? Absolutely not, but I am self aware of my eating habits and when I am tempted I try to think before I eat or prepare ahead of time.

Fuel Your Body Tips:

• Use the weekend to plan your upcoming week. What do you have going on? What’s the weather supposed to be like?
• Make your lunches and snacks ahead of time so it is a grab and go. You will be less tempted to grab the unhealthy snack if you open the fridge and you can grab something ready for you.
• If you know you will be running around put a protein bar or bag of nuts in your purse or car.
• Don’t eat the same thing week after week. You will get bored and definitely stray off the path. Try a new recipe each week or new vegetable/fruit you haven’t tried.
• Remember that things that seem like a healthier option may be just a filler as the unhealthy. For example: a large muffin typically has the same amount of sugar and fat as a large cupcake.
• Think about the extras you put on your food. Extra dressing on your salad is diluting the fuel you are trying to eat.

This week’s challenge is to ONLY eat with two purposes.

• To fuel your body
• To appreciate flavors

Food is good! You can and should absolutely enjoy eating AND you can do this with these 2 purposes in mind.

Food is meant to be fuel for our body. Just as a car needs gas, your body requires good nutritious food to keep it moving efficiently. If you put diesel in a non-leaded vehicle, it will go for a little bit but will destroy your car. That’s exactly what all the junk food / processed food is doing to our bodies. We also have to keep filling up our car, make sure you are eating throughout the day. Don’t save your calories for later. By eating throughout the day you keep your blood sugar from dropping and your metabolism running.

Now I will be the first to admit that I am completely, absolutely guilty of eating all the junk. And I am the perfect example of why you can’t out train a bad diet. I am committed/dedicated to my workout plan, but food…not so much. Therefore, until I change my mindset and have the same commitment as my workouts I will always have “the belly…”. That’s where this week’s challenge is starting.

Now with the “healthy food” it doesn’t taste as good as the junk since it doesn’t have the sugars and other additives. That’s where the second part of the challenge comes in. You can make the healthy food taste good. There are so many recipes out there to choose from. Take a few minutes today to find some recipes that you want to try.

You can do hard things. Let’s start this week.

I am going to challenge you this week to take the compliment. Getting support from others involves give and take. When people give you solid helpful support, let them know you appreciate it!

Getting a compliment especially on something that you are working on, but not yet accomplished can be uncomfortable. Do you catch yourself discounting or be negative towards yourself? It’s easy to discount people’s comments because of your own frustrations toward progress to your goal. But when you react to compliments in a negative way, it makes people think their support doesn’t mean anything to you.

Don’t believe me? Think back to when you gave someone a genuine compliment and they dismissed it. How did you make you feel? Now think of when you gave a compliment and the person was appreciative. Who do you think you will give more compliments too?

Just say, “You can’t imagine how much it means to hear you say that. Thank You!!” It is seriously that easy.

This week practice giving and receiving compliments. Make sure you are genuine and see how people react. You can be the positive force that keeps that person continuing on their journey to meet their goals.

We all have those people around us that want to help us. The problem is they sometimes don’t help us the way we want them to. Guess what? They are not mind readers and probably have no idea that what they are doing isn’t helping you.

That’s where this week’s challenge is about. I challenge you to have the conversations with the people around you. Start with “It will help me if…” followed by what you want them to do. Not only will they be happy you told them, they will feel like they are really supporting you.

In the magic journal you made a few weeks ago, I want you to write a list of things that will help you meet your goals or even just help you be able to rest and relax a little bit. Use this list to have the conversations with the people around you that support you.

Remember that people want to help. They can’t read your mind so you have to actually tell them what you need.