Motivation Archives - Page 4 of 7 - Be the Change Nutrition

Motivational quote that says If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.

5 Reasons You’re Overeating

Conscious Eating, Meals, Motivation, Nutrition Info, Tips

We all overeat sometimes.
And it’s OK! 👍🏼

BUT… If it’s happening over and over and you want to stop…

Then it only makes sense to look at ✨WHY✨ you’re overeating so you can make a change.

There are many reasons for overeating, but here are 5 that are biggies:

1. SKIPPING MEALS OR UNDEREATING AT MEALS. 🍎
Under-fueling/inadequate calorie intake will catch up with you, often resulting in overeating later. Plan ahead so you don’t miss meals and ensure you’re eating enough to satisfy you.

2. IMBALANCE OF MACROS AT MEALS. 🥗
Macros (=macronutrients) are carbs/protein/fat.
No, you don’t need to count them, but if you’re lacking any one of them, you may find yourself overcompensating later. Strive for balance and variety.

3. YOU’RE TIRED. 🥱
When you’re sleep deprived, food can be seen as a quick energy source. It’s easy to overeat when what you really need is to rest.

4. WAITING TOO LONG TO EAT BETWEEN MEALS. 🕒
Not everyone needs a snack between meals, but if you’re ravenous when it comes time for lunch or dinner and end up overeating, you might find having a snack in between helps.

5. EATING WHILE DISTRACTED. (phone, TV, etc) 📺
If your overeating correlates with scrolling on your phone, playing on your computer or watching a show, then try putting the screens away and paying more attention to your food when you eat.

🫢 Surprised that I didn’t mention lack of willpower?
Overeating typically has nothing to do with willpower.
Telling yourself you have no control is disempowering.
Get curious about other potential reasons and make changes!

April 23, 2024/0 Comments

Cover for a 4-step guide to building a balanced bowl.

Build a Balanced Bowl

Conscious Eating, Meals, Motivation, Nutrition Info, Tips

✨Create a delicious, balanced bowl in 4 easy steps.✨

These balanced bowls give you an ideal combo of carbs, protein, fat and fiber to stay full.

They’re a perfect way to get a wide range of micronutrients (vitamins & minerals).

Memorize this template and you’ll be able to put together dozens of different meals!

Pick one carbohydrate source or combine 2 or more.

Rice + beans pair well as do quinoa + winter squash.

Aim for a variety of veggies over the course of the week.

Steam, oven-roast, grill or saute them.

Frozen are fine too- microwave or steam & they’re ready in just minutes.

If you’re looking for a vegan meal, choose one from the bottom 3 and keep in mind that many of the carbohydrate sources like lentils, beans, quinoa and some pastas are actually pretty decent sources of protein… so mixing and matching these can meet your protein needs.

Flavorful sauces & crunchy, salty, sweet and spicy toppings will boost the nutritional value as well as keep your food interesting.

🍠🥦🍗🥑🍚🥬🍄🧄🍤🥜

There you have it: Pick a carbohydrate, protein, veggies and fat/flavor!

✨Get creative and discover the combos you find the most satisfying.✨

March 14, 2024/0 Comments

Emotional Eating

Conscious Eating, Motivation, Tips

Woman emotional eating in front of the fridge.

Emotional eating is not bad or wrong! 🤗 It’s normal and OK.

Your body is sending you a message that something is going on.

It’s OK to have this as an option.

🚩 But there can be negative consequences if food is your one and only way to respond to your emotions.

➡️ If you want to break “emotional eating” you need to practice the PAUSE.

This pause between the stimulus (emotion) and response (eating) is where you’ll find your freedom to choose:

1. Notice what you are feeling. Identify it. Feel it. 😟

2. Take a few deep breaths and PAUSE. ⏸️

3. Think about what you need right now and CHOOSE your response. 🤔

❣️ Maybe you choose to just feel whatever you’re feeling, knowing that it will pass.

❣️ Maybe you choose to turn to food. Here’s how: Be intentional about what you want to eat. Put an amount that you feel will satisfy you on a plate or in a bowl, sit down with it and slowly enjoy it, allowing it to soothe you. This is completely the opposite of mindlessly grabbing a bag or box of whatever and zoning out in front of the TV. Instead, it becomes a conscious choice.

❣️Maybe you decide that food isn’t going to help you feel better so you choose an alternative response. This is where knowing what you like to do and having a list of options comes in handy.

🌟 A lot of people identify as “emotional eaters” when in fact, they haven’t eaten enough or the right types of foods earlier in the day. So, when stress arises and the urge to eat hits, it’s easy to believe that it’s because of the emotion…. When it’s really got more to do with undernourishment.

💗 At Be the Change Nutrition, I help you untangle your unwanted eating behaviors and come up with a strategy to change them and get you feeling back in control of food again. 💗

February 29, 2024/0 Comments

Just Eat It: A Book Review

Conscious Eating, Motivation, Nutrition Info, Tips

Just Eat It. 🍩

I love reading about the science of how food affects our bodies AND anything having to do with the psychological aspects of eating.

The two are definitely intertwined.

Having an understanding of each is crucial to being a dietitian in private practice working with people looking to manage everything from diabetes to digestive distress to disordered eating. This book perfectly combines food science with intuitive eating and it’s absolutely packed with tons of important information and practical tips.

👍🏻👍🏻 Two thumbs up for Just Eat It by Laura Thomas, PhD.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to get off the dieting roller coaster, stop obsessing over food and figure out how to just eat normally again. If you struggle with a poor body image or orthorexia (an unhealthy preoccupation with healthy eating) this is a must read.

Just Eat It explains how the messages we’re exposed to about food and our bodies can cause disordered eating habits and a negative body image. There are reasons why our relationship with food is so unhealthy and why so many people hate their bodies and stress over everything they’re eating. It’s basically been taught to us.

It’s something we’ve learned and now it’s something we have to unlearn.

You will not find any meal plans or diet dos & don’ts in this book. 😮‍💨

Just Eat It emphasizes the importance of self-compassion and mindfulness– Along with how to work at these things to help you go from disordered eating to intuitive eating and feeling good about yourself.

You’ll read about giving yourself permission to eat (and addressing all the fears that come with that). You’ll learn the steps to take to help you trust your body to guide you towards what, when and how much to eat.

She explains how by taking foods off a pedestal they lose a lot of their allure. When you stop restricting them, they actually become less exciting and tempting. A few more valuable things you’ll learn are: The biology of how fullness & satiety work, how to tune in to your body cues & feel your fullness, how to pay attention to the way different foods make you feel, how hunger hormones work and how to differentiate between emotional & physical hunger. You’ll find out how to deal with your (irrational) inner food critic and rewire your brain. She also debunks several nutrition myths that may be preventing you from properly nourishing yourself.

I loved this book so much because it aligns with a lot of what I work on with my clients at Be the Change Nutrition. Yes, we talk about food, but creating a healthy relationship with food & your body involves so much more and that’s what you’ll find in this book.

If you’re not living your happiest, healthiest life because of your food and body issues…

🍩Just Read It! 🍩

February 20, 2024/0 Comments

Hunger Scale (printable!)

BTC Office, Conscious Eating, Meals, Motivation, Nutrition Info, Tips

Years of dieting can cause a disconnection from your internal signals.

A Hunger Scale is a tool to help you connect to your hunger & satiety cues.

It’s a way to increase awareness, which is the first step towards behavior change.

3 Ways a Hunger Scale can be helpful:

1️⃣ Do you go too long without eating, often finding yourself at a 0-2?

Use it to check in with your body earlier to notice signs that you need to eat.

2️⃣ Do you tend to overeat to the point of feeling uncomfortable (8-10)?

Use it to check in with your body while you are eating to learn when you’ve had enough.

3️⃣ Do you find yourself mindlessly reaching for food between meals?

Use it as a pause button to check in with your body & identify what’s triggering the urge to eat.

The scale can help you decide if you need food or if you are actually comfortable and could respond differently.

Aim to stay within 3-7 most of the time.

That being said, there are going to be times when you may need or want to eat when you aren’t hungry and that’s ok.

There are going to be times when you eat beyond a 7 and that is ok too.

There are many factors involved besides hunger/fullness when it comes to eating.

Look at it as a tool to get curious & gain insight into your habits and behaviors.

At first you may not know how your body feels or what it needs.

Practice and it will get easier and easier.

💗 Reconnect with your body and eat for the way you want to feel!💗

Print your FREE Hunger Scale here!

November 29, 2023/0 Comments

Understanding the delay between eating and satiety to help choose the right amount of food.

Wait 15 Minutes

Conscious Eating, Meals, Motivation, Snacks, Tips

Is this you? 👇🏻

You’re hungry.

You enjoy a delicious dinner.

You finish your plate.

You refill your plate with more food.

You’re FULL.

You wonder why you ate so much…

AGAIN. 🙄

Let me introduce you to a little tip that can help.

Doesn’t it feel nice when you eat just the right amount of food?

When you reach that point where you’re no longer hungry, yet you’re not uncomfortably overfull.

It’s easier said than done.

Most of us have eyes bigger than our stomachs.

Let’s face it, food is delicious and brings us great pleasure.

We are extremely fortunate to have access to such abundance.

But the problem with this is:

Our waistlines are expanding and we have astronomically high rates of diet-related diseases because of overeating.

The key is to be able to enjoy enough food to satisfy without going overboard. ⚖️ (Balance!)

This is not easy for most people, but with some appetite awareness and mindful practice it can be an achievable goal.

Check out this study where subjects were given snacks in either a small portion or a much larger portion size.

The snacks included chocolate, apple pie and potato chips.

These are all very tasty foods that are also easy to overeat.

We’ve all been there!

Something to think about, hmmm? 🤔

Each group ate their snack and then waited 15 minutes. ⏰

✨There is a delay of about 15-20 minutes for your brain to register that your body has had enough.✨

➡️This is good to know because if you are aware of this you can consciously decide to stop eating before it’s too late.

We all know that feeling of wanting to continue eating, thinking we need more, or maybe simply just wanting more, only to realize later that we overdid it and should have stopped eating much earlier.

✨We can feel satisfied after eating less food than we think we need.✨

👉🏻 Chances are good that by then your stomach will have sent the signal to your brain that it’s had plenty & the desire for eating more will have faded.

✨You may be surprised to learn that you didn’t need as much as you thought you did.✨

You can also try this if you tend to over-snack in between meals!

Consciously decide to have a smaller snack than you normally would.

Give yourself 15-20 minutes to begin to digest and metabolize your food.

Then reassess your need for more food. 🤔

Be patient with yourself because like learning anything else new, this takes practice.

You’re essentially trying to change a habit (overeating) and that’s not easy to do.

You might find it tremendously hard to stop eating until you get that too-full feeling if that’s what your body is used to experiencing.

But each time that you are able to eat a little bit less, you are reinforcing the fact that you really do not need such large quantities of food to feel satisfied. You will gain confidence. It WILL become easier and easier with each success you have. 💪🏻

We never repent of having eaten too little. – Thomas Jefferson

November 13, 2023/0 Comments

Free Printable Food and Wellness Journal Sheet

Conscious Eating, Motivation, Nutrition Info, Tips

The first step towards change is 👀AWARENESS 👀of your behaviors.

✨You need to know and understand your habits in order to form new ones.✨

Keeping a wellness journal like this for a few days (or longer) can give you valuable information.

Journaling makes you MINDFUL of everything you’re eating & drinking, how you’re sleeping, your movement and your mood.

All of these are interconnected and contribute to your health. 🍴💧💤🏃🏻‍♀️😬☺️

Reflect after a few days.

Are your meals and snacks balanced? 🍗🍠🥦🥑

How are your moods and energy levels and how do they affect your eating? 😢🙂🤪

Same with sleep. 🥱

What kind of activity are you doing to move your body? 🏌🏻‍♂️🤾🏻‍♂️🚴🏻🏋🏻

Are you eating fruits and vegetables daily? 🍎🍌🥗🥕

How much added sugar are you consuming? 🍭🍫🍰🍦

Do you find yourself reaching for food when you’re not even hungry? 🧐

You will notice what’s going well 😀along with what you’re not happy with. 🙈

I’ve also included space for setting personal goals for your day & remembering something you have to be thankful for.🙏🏻

There is also room for acknowledging an accomplishment, identifying something you want to improve upon and brainstorming ideas for what you want to eat tomorrow.

And don’t forget, your dietitian is always here to help you in your wellness journey.

💗💗💗💗💗

Print your free Food and Wellness Journal sheet here!

October 9, 2023/0 Comments

2 Journaling Exercises for Body Image

Motivation, Tips

Body image= Your thoughts and feelings about your body.

🥰😑😮😚🥲🙄😫😕🙂😭😬🫣🤪🤗🤨🤩

There’s nothing wrong with wishing your body looked different.

🪄 If we had the powers to do so, I’m sure most of us would change a thing or two.

In fact, wanting to be the best version of ourselves can be a powerful motivator for self-care and healthy habits.

However… The illusion is this:

The belief that your life will be somehow be better with a different body.🤥

It’s a false belief.

🤯🤯🤯

Get out paper & a pen, and get ready to begin to put things into perspective. ✍🏻

Journaling Exercise #1 for Body Image:

Journaling Exercise #2 for Body Image:

Questions like these can be powerful mindset shifters. 🤔

You don’t need to lose weight to be happy or to live your life fully.

You don’t need to change your body; you need to work on caring for it.

Let me know if this was helpful and what you learned about yourself.💗

September 12, 2023/0 Comments

“But I Love to Go Out for Ice Cream in Summer…”

Conscious Eating, Motivation, Sweets and Treats, Tips

3 ice cream cones.

Happy Summer! 😎

It’s officially ice cream season. 🍦🌞

Uh-oh. 🤪

“But I love to go out for ice cream in summer…”

I’ve been hearing this one since the beginning of May. 😅

You want it because it is delicious but you also believe that it’s a “bad” thing to do.

So you wind up in a conundrum. 😯 Relax.

🥰 Don’t feel torn about eating ice cream if that’s what you really want to do. 🥰

Stop beating yourself up and feeling as if you should not have had it once you’ve eaten it. Enough with the regrets and the guilt!

But how do you do this?

While I can’t give you an answer to exactly how much and how often you “should” have it, I can offer some advice for how to find that happy balance when it comes to eating it and feeling good about your decision. 👇

When faced with ice cream, it helps to ask yourself some questions…

🍦 Question 1: Do I really want this? Is it really worth it right now? 🤔

Because sometimes, when you pause and check in with yourself… you don’t.

You might like the idea of ice cream– but right now, today, in this very moment, you’re actually feeling quite content without it. Maybe you’ll wait until next time. It’s not now or never. There will be plenty of other opportunities.

Or, you might decide that ice cream sounds delicious and it would make you really happy today. So you make the conscious decision to enjoy some. Own your choice without feeling bad about it. Feeling bad kind of ruins the whole point of the ice cream experience.

Don’t make this about whether you should or should not. Instead look at it as, you can, but do you really want to? There is no right or wrong. It is always your choice. 🤗

🍦 Question 2: What is the minimal amount that will do it? 🤔

If you’re used to restricting ice cream or if you’re very hungry, you may overestimate how much you need to feel good. If you’ve been practicing mindfully allowing all foods and aren’t starving, you’ll have better judgment.

We tend to think we need more to feel satisfied than we really do.

How often do you regret eating too much ice cream?🥴

And how about eating too little? 😄 I thought so.

➡️ Tip: Order a small (or even a kiddie size). I’ve been to enough local ice-cream shops to know that these are actually a very decent sized serving! If you’re used to ordering larger sizes, conduct a little experiment where you get the smaller size and then see how you feel after. I bet you feel satisfied and happy with your decision. 😘

🍦🍧🍨🍦🍧🍨🍦🍧🍨🍦🍧🍨🍦🍧🍨

This can’t be about denying yourself. It will not work. If you look at it that way, you’re going to want it more. It has to be about a 💫choice💫. Give yourself the permission and freedom to have it.

Flip your mindset from “I shouldn’t” or “I can’t” to “I can have ice cream if I really want it.”

When you reframe how you look at it, you just may have the groundbreaking realization that you might actually feel better not having ice cream than having ice cream. 🤯

I think most of us have a pretty good understanding of how detrimental excessive sugar can be for our body. Does that mean having the occasional ice cream cone is going to ruin your health, cause a disease or kill you? 😵 Of course not.

But everything we eat has an effect on our bodies, for better or worse, and over time our choices add up.

We are all free to make our own choices! 💓Do what makes you happy and what supports your values and goals.

Empower yourself by making mindful decisions and owning them. Ice cream can fit into a balanced, healthy lifestyle if it makes you happy. It’s the guilt and self loathing that are really damaging. 💗

Real ice cream is awesome… And so is this version of ice cream made from frozen bananas!🍌🍌🍌

June 21, 2023/0 Comments

5 Hobbies for Life Balance

Motivation

The food we eat is ONE piece of a balanced life. 🧩

I’m a dietitian here to help you with your eating habits, but we’ll likely end up talking about other areas of your life too.

Why?

They are actually all interconnected. 💞

Wellness is about nurturing our mind and body in many ways in addition to food.

When we bring other areas of life into balance, our eating habits become more balanced. ⚖️

My “5 Hobbies for Life Balance”:

1. One that makes me money. 💰

Nutrition counseling. 😄 As much as I believe life is about so much more than money, having money is clearly important because it helps enable me to live the life I want to live. I am extremely fortunate to have found a way of making money that gives my life meaning and makes me happy. It wasn’t always this way. Take a look at some of my jobs over the years: Tops Market Bulk Foods dept (1st job ever- high school- stocking bins with candy 🍬, a dream job!😅) , medical office assistant, rollerskating car-hop, waitress at a couple of Newport restaurants, GNC assistant manager, crew member on Blount cruise ships, team member in the Whole Foods Market Bakery, Grocery and Whole Body depts… and I even got my Series 7 and 66 licenses and had a brief stint in the stock market field. I’m exhausted reminding myself of all of that. Even though most of those were mainly a means to an end, they did provide a sense of purpose and structure.

👉 Money is important, but once you figure out what you are passionate about… Go for it. Life is just too short.

2. One that moves my body. 🏃🏻‍♀️

If I had to pick one– running. 👟 But what would I do without yoga? 🧘🏻I think we need to have several outlets for moving our bodies. I also love biking 🚴🏻 and walking 🚶🏻. And now I’m even getting back into rollerblading. 🛼 Activities of daily living count too– vacuuming, yard work, laundry, hauling in the firewood, etc. Moving our bodies is right up there with nutrition when it comes to longevity and achieving a better quality of life– both physically and mentally- as we age. We need to keep moving to keep our muscles, bones, vascular system, brain, etc functioning as optimally as possible. 💪🏋️ What you’re able to do in your 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s will have a lot to do with how you’ve cared for your body in your 20s-50s.

👉 Do it now so you can do all the things later.

3. One that is an outlet for creativity. 👩🏻‍💻

As much as I’m desperate to get off the computer, it has also become a big outlet for creativity. 💻 Between my website and blog, Facebook, Instagram and creating music videos of my dog 🐶, being creative with technology can be fun. 😁 Hopefully creating social media posts and writing blog posts is helping someone out there feel inspired. 💫 Find something that causes you to lose track of time because you get so involved and focused (the zone). We all have something– music🎵, writing✍️, painting🎨, drawing🖍️, puzzles🧩, crafts🧺, baking🧁, gardening🧑‍🌾, the list is endless.

👉 Tapping into creativity is a way to reduce stress, express yourself and achieve a sense of accomplishment.

4. One that connects me with others. 🧘🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️🚵🏻‍♀️

Not to duplicate my answers from #1 & #2, but my connection with others happens to involve talking with clients through nutrition counseling & being physically active. Listening to clients’ stories, establishing trust and being a source of support all involve connecting. 💁‍♀️ Going to a yoga class is a much more rewarding experience than doing it alone at home. Biking is almost always more fun with others too. And while I am usually a lone runner, I also love running with a friend!

👉 Surround yourself with like-minded people for that necessary sense of connection we all long for.

5. One that supports learning and a healthy mindset.

I love reading and learning. 📖 How anyone can ever be bored in this life is beyond my comprehension. There is always, always, always something to learn! Right now I am reading Outlive by Peter Attia and Die with Zero by Bill Perkins. I recently finished The Body by Bill Bryson. All very interesting. 👍👍 I’m also working on practicing consistency with daily meditation. 🤌 I notice the mindset benefits when I quiet down and let the dust settle. 🙏 We’re meant to continue learning and growing though life.

👉 Find the things that interest and excite you and learn more about them. 💗

🤔 What are your “5 Hobbies for Life Balance”?

June 13, 2023/0 Comments