Learn to plan, prep and protect your nutrition like a total mom boss Part 3: Protect your nutrition
When most people talk about eating healthy, they only talk about meal planning and prepping. While those are crucial parts to success, this last step is possibly the most important part of a new endeavor: protecting your nutrition.
There are too many things that can stop us from living a healthy life: being busy, being tired, people thinking what we’re doing is dumb, a last-minute change of plans, one negative thought. All it takes is one little chip in the windshield to make everything else crack.
Protecting our nutrition is the hardest part of a new healthy living journey, but it’s also going to be what keeps us on the path we want to be on.
Protect your nutrition from self-sabotage
The biggest reason that people give up on a healthy living journey is self-sabotage. What does this mean? It means we talk ourselves out of making the choices that will lead us to true happiness. It sounds, so dumb because we think, “Who would choose to be unhappy?” but we do it all of the time.
Making healthy choices is hard. If it wasn’t, we would all be healthy and fit. Being healthy takes dedication and perseverance. But most of all it takes a belief in ourselves.
The moment we begin to doubt ourselves is the moment we give in to the easy road. Instead of giving in to negative thoughts, we must have a plan to stop those thoughts and empower ourselves instead.
James Clear, the author of one of my favorite books, Atomic Habits, said, “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up so does the evidence of your new identity.”
If you want to be healthy, you have to take steps towards it. You can’t give into self-sabotage. With every step you take towards your goal you’ll see that you’re accomplishing your dreams.
Protect your nutrition from other people’s opinion
Everyone has an opinion on what’s healthy and what’s not and when you tell people that you’re trying to eat healthily everyone is going to let you know what their opinion is.
If those opinions don’t support you, then it’s best to leave them behind you. Holding on to other people’s opinions that don’t encourage you, only holds you back. You don’t need your second cousin’s voice in the back of your head telling you that what you’re trying to accomplish isn’t worth it. You need your best friend’s voice to tell you that you can reach the stars.
One of the reasons that people voice those negative, and sometimes mean, opinions is because they see that you are trying to be better and do better and they feel like that makes them less than. Obviously, that’s not true, but the brain is in defense mode and they are really just trying to protect their own choices.
Listen to the voices who encourage you. Ask those who aren’t on board to support you. Sometimes, asking for their help and support is the perfect way to defuse the situation and help them get out of their defensive mode.
If people still choose not to support you, then it might be a good idea to put some distance between you and them. There is no point in surrounding yourself in negativity.
The same goes for online accounts! If you follow someone who doesn’t bring joy and positivity into your life, it’s ok to unfollow them! Even if it’s an account that’s supposed to inspire you, if you feel pangs of jealousy or frustration, then let it go! You can come back later and try again but right now, in the midst of your journey you only need to consume media that helps you grow.
Protect your nutrition from the unexpected
The “unexpected.” What does that even mean? Life is crazy, especially for us as moms. Plans can change in an instant and our best-laid plans may have to be thrown out the window. When this happens we need a way to continue protecting our nutrition because a little here and a little there adds up to quite a bit.
How often have you had a great plan in place to have a healthy dinner on the table at 5 p.m. but your daughter’s soccer practice ran late, you got stuck in traffic and now you aren’t even home until 6 p.m.? It’s nights like that you would normally run through the drive-thru and grab fast food, right?
Maybe you have a great meal plan in place for your day, but then your sister calls and invites you out to lunch. You want to go but what about your meal plan?
These are the unexpected moments that I’m talking about! Things come up, no matter how well we plan. We can be healthy without giving up life’s spontaneity!
Each situation is going to have its own set of problems, but there are a couple of tools that you can keep in your tool belt to help you handle these situations.
Have back up meals: When you’re running late and you can’t prepare a whole meal from scratch, have items on hand that are quick to prepare but are still in line with your goals.
Use the Never Two Trick: If you’re invited to eat out at the last minute, it’s ok to go! The Never Two Trick can help you get back on track quickly after an off-meal.
Know how to order food: You can eat out and still make healthy choices! Learning how to order food is a great tool for a happy, healthy life!
Find a compromise: If you want to go out, but you are working toward a goal, take a raincheck on getting together so you can create a plan for yourself, ask to get together, but not over food. Find a way to be social without it revolving around food.
Say no: It’s absolutely acceptable to say no to things that don’t fit into your goals. Saying no can be the most powerful tool for reaching your goals. Don’t be afraid to use it if you don’t want to go along with a plan that doesn’t fit in your goals.
Protecting your nutrition does require you to be a little bit selfish but in a good way! You don’t have to throw away your own needs - and healthy living is a need! - to make everyone else happy. You are the one who has to live with your choices, which means you have permission to put your needs in front of someone else’s wants.
If you need help protecting your nutrition, join my Macros Made Easy Program. Every week I empower my clients with new tools to plan, prep and protect their nutrition.
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