What are possible nutrition mistakes that you could be making and HOW can you avoid them’ It’s something I talk about a lot and get asked a lot.
I had a conversation with a client recently and it made me want to talk about this topic with you guys. I know a lot of you think that you can pull out that old nutrition playbook that you followed, dust it off, and just find success again with it. I get it, but this is not going to always be the case.
Have you fully considered how much your life has changed since the last time you dusted off that playbook”
How many times HAVE YOU dusted off that playbook’
How long did you go before you pulled the plug and quit’
I ask because we are always looking for evidence. Evidence that this is going to work.. Because it would make sense if past success meant future success”’ RIGHT” Mehhhh. WRONG! Except for when it comes to nutrition!
Most women over 40 think it’s all about trying hard, going big or going home. And it does not have to be that way at all!! So here are the mistakes you are avoiding, what they are, and how you can overcome them!
(Also ladies, you can always reach out to me too to dive deeper into this and ask questions! Don’t feel like you are bothering me!)
There are so many diet pitfalls we can fall into. And I don’t want you to fall into the diet rabbit holes that myself and other women have fallen into! So, if you are looking for a way to improve upon your current weight loss plan, here are some mistakes you should be on the lookout for!
“Health Food Is Good For You”
I bought my food at Whole Foods. It says organic. It is all natural. Ok, yeah you are right, but FLIP over the box and look at the ingredients! There are a lot of good foods that can work well with your diet, but not all of these are good for everyone! You need to base your diet off your goals and how you feel. And remember that not all foods work for everyone. There are some foods out there that may seem like a healthy choice, but in the end, they are not what we thought.
Take green juice for example. They juice the goodness right out of it, and you are left with green sugary water!! This goes into your bloodstream and causes an insulin spike. So, if you want a green juice, look at the ingredients and it is probably going to be a 10:2 ratio of fruits to vegetables… You want this reversed and want it to be more vegetable heavy.
Flip over the package and read what is in it! First ingredient has the most, the last ingredient has the least!
“To get results, we start to dramatically slash our calories!”
Cutting calories can spike your cravings like no one’s business if you dramatically slash them. We don’t want to send your body into shock. Your body will be reeling and looking for energy if you do this. Then it will start ringing the doorbell of your cravings hard core!!
In theory this makes sense to cut calories, but OUR BODIES do not function like this. It’s not an on off switch, it’s a dimmer. Slowly dim down the calories so that we don’t take our body out of homeostasis. If you create a dramatic calorie, drop and bump up exercise to extra hours a week, your body is not going to be happy!
Instead… Modify what you are eating. Am I making smarter choices’ What am I eating’
Balance those foods with exercise instead of trying to cut them all together! It’s not as easy as calories in, calories out. Our body is more like a dimmer switch. So you want to start by slowly cranking things down.. I want you to dial in your nutrition and work into the happy zone of a 5-7 on the dial. That way if you have to crank up the dial for something, you can get it to an 8 or 9 without being drastic!
Some of us feel we “can never have a cheat meal”.
We think if we do, we will lose out shit! If I let my foot off the gas a little bit, it will open Pandora’s box if you will! No… this is wrong. Instead, you want to figure out how you can incorporate fun foods into your diet so that you are not always white knuckling it. When you don’t have these foods in your system, the day you put 1 or 2 into your body, you may lose your absolute shit! So DO NOT RESTRICT.
I’m a huge fan of moderation!!! I’ve done a whole podcast on it, and I am going to be doing a whole course on moderation! But here is where we have to have that moderation.
We have to have those fun meals in our life!!!! No one wants to have carrots when everyone’s having cake! That’s boring and awkward…
You want to go out to dinner with your sweetie and have something and not be “that” person that is unable to eat anything on the menu. You want to tell yourself that it is ok to go out to dinner and have bread or a couple glasses of wine or DESERT! You don’t want to be like, “Oh I blew it!” NOOO! Don’t do that to yourself. Instead, just go about your next day as is!
Don’t restrict yourself. Plan on having treat meals alongside your nutrition choices. Log them and moderate your choices as you go along. Focus on the long term so you can build self-trust within yourself. Remember… Dimmer switch…. Keep it in the middle!
“In order to lose weight, I have to stay in a caloric deficit.”
Say you are eating 2000 calories. If you reduce your intake by 500 calories a day, that is 3500 calories in a week you reduced, then you will lose a pound in a week. BUTTT our body is not a calculator. Not all of our bodies are going to work this way. And their SURE AS HELL is no organ that does this.
So… It’s not about the 500 calories, it’s about looking at yourself and saying what are my food choices! Because that is what adds up. The nutrition density that you have in food is important! 300 calories chicken is not the same as 300 calories in a snickers bar. Chicken breast will take our bodies more energy to digest. Unlike a snickers bar that will BURN through our bodies so dang fast!
This is why I am all about REPS because what happens on day 31′ This is when you need a realistic plan you are excited about that you can make a plan for in your life that is sustainable! We know in order to find my fit girl magic; we have to have great habits that lead to great routines that lead to consistency and THAT is where I get results!
Think about this… If I am chasing these 500 calories a day, how is my hunger’ How do I feel’ How is my energy’ How are my cravings’ If any of those kick up, guess what’ YOU ARE NOT GOING TO STICK WITH IT! So, you need to take a look at what you are eating. Different foods have different effects on your hunger, energy and cravings. These are key indicators on how your food is interacting with your body.
If I am always hungry.. What are you eating’
Energy’ Are you eating a lot of carby sugary foods’ Are you not sleeping’ Are you stressed’
Cravings’ What are you eating’ Are you eating to fill you for 3-5 hours’ Are you eating foods that you are craving’
Play food detective. Ask yourself… How are your foods serving you’ Instead of blindly slashing our calories, we want to understand where our calories are coming from. People think that If I do hard, I am going to get the results I want. But here’s the thing. If I choose hard, I am going to repeat. Because at some point, the reason why you stopped is because it wasn’t sustainable for you!!!
Now this next myth… I fell hook line and sinker……..
In order to” stoke” your metabolism, you have to eat 5 meals a day.
This is what I did for years. 5 meals a day, 2-3 hours apart. You eat by the clock. I trained myself to eat at certain times. THIS WAS MY THING!
Your metabolic rate is the number of calories your body burns in a given time. The thought was that if I ate food my digestive system would be burning more calories as I ate food! I also wanted to stabilize my blood sugar so I didn’t have these big peaks and valleys.
BUTTTT!!!
There was no significant impact to me burning more calories or fat! That myth was debunked. And for blood sugars… When we kept stocking the fire with food, the door wouldn’t close from our pancreas and insulin, so our bodies weren’t properly digesting our food between each meal! My body didn’t know when I was actually hungry because it was designed to eat at certain intervals.
So here are some tips. If you start to feel hungry, wait 10 minutes. Ask yourself, “Am I hungry or have you trained to eat at 1030 or 2’” Play with it because I don’t want you to get tooo hungry because then you get crazy with it! You need to be aware of your body and your hunger… and if you are not. You need to reset your hunger…
So here is that radical approach to eating….. If you can do these, this will help tremendously.
1) Eat when you are hungry – woahhhhh what did she say”
2) STOP when you are full!! – even if that means leaving food on your plate! (It is ok to leave food on your plate! It really is.. )
Really look in on these and hone in on them!
So… Do you want to keep falling for these myths’ Not hitting the weight loss goals and getting frustrated with yourself’ Or do you want to finally understand how nutrition works and cut through all the noise and BS on the “What is healthy, what is not healthy.” so you can finally make smart choices for yourself every single day”
This is why I created Reboot Nutrition. It is a program designed to help you break the cycle of Yo Yo dieting and teach you how to create a customized plan that fits into your lifestyle so you can finally lose the weight and keep it off.
I am going to teach you all the stuff I know!
I am going to break it down for you so you understand what the heck is protein and why I should give a crap about it!
How do my lifestyle factors factor into my weight loss’
WE are going to talk about moderation too!!
You’ re going to get inside my brain and I am going to help you navigate today’s nutritional footprint!
Check it out and I look forward to seeing you all attend this 10 week course where I unpack it allllll!!! It is going to be so amazing!! Trust me!!
LINKS
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/kimbarnesjeffersoncoach
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitgirlmagic/
Website: https://www.kimbarnesjefferson.com/
Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fit-girl-magic-healthy-living-for-women-over-40/id1476883661
Reboot Nutrition
https://kimbarnesjefferson.lpages.co/reboot-nutrition_waitlist/