4 Easy healthy habits you need now so you don't gain weight when life gets busy
Back-to-school season is almost here - my kids go back in less than a month - while I love back-to-school season because it means I get some kid-free time during the day, I also know that once school starts we will have sports practices, carpools and homework all pulling for my attention. With all those extra activities it’s hard to find the time to take care of my health and my needs. However, I also know that if you spend the time now, to build healthy habits they’ll carry you through the busy times ahead.
Let’s be honest, it’s a lot easier to make healthy choices when life is slower. When you have a consistent schedule and you’re home for meals it’s easy to make sure you’re sticking to your weight loss goals. But how often is life like that?
For me, it’s not that often! I’m constantly switching gears! Running my kids around to all their practices and games, adjusting schedules when my husband is gone for work, and trying to do all the other tasks that come with being a mom.
If you’re waiting for life to slow down enough to create healthy habits it’s not going to happen. You need to develop healthy habits right now so that when life gets insanely busy over the next few months, you already have the habits to keep you going!
Summer may not feel like the best time to start implementing healthy habits because you’re traveling more or your kids are home, but the truth is that today is the best time to start developing healthy habits because if you wait, you’ll be waiting forever.
Instead of putting it off until life slows down enough to do all the things, what if you just picked one habit to start on and focused on it until you nailed it? Then you could work on the next habit, and the next until you developed the healthy habits that set you up for success even when life is crazy.
Having tools, systems and habits in place for life’s busy seasons will make living a healthy life so much easier, I promise!
I have a mama in my Macros Made Easy program who is an accountant and she told me, back in April - the busiest time of year for her - that this year was the first time in her 15-year career, that she ate good food, drank water, slept and spoke kindly to herself during tax season and it made all the difference for her!
She didn’t just pick up these habits in April and feel amazing by tax day. She spent time before tax season learning how to care for herself so that she should feel good in her personal and professional life!
Mama, I know that if you spend time building these four healthy habits, you’ll be able to lose weight, keep it off, have energy, and feel good year-round, even in the crazy busy seasons when you usually gain weight!
Habit #1: Eat nutritious food
Food is fuel. We’ve all heard it, we know we should eat healthily, but we still make unhealthy choices when it comes to food. The reason we continue to make “bad” choices, is that we’re confused! No one can agree on what is healthy!
One expert will tell you that low-carb is the healthiest way to eat, while another expert will tell you low-fat is best. So who are you supposed to believe?
The truth is that our bodies require protein, carbs and fat to perform at their optimal levels. You need protein to build muscle and keep you full. You need carbs to give you energy. You need fat to balance your hormones! Each macronutrient plays a crucial role in healthy living!
You need to learn how to eat the right balance of macronutrients so that you can optimize fat loss, build muscle and have energy. But what does that look like for you?
I don’t know, yet! There is no one-size-fits-all for food intake. It’s an individualized process, so I can’t tell you what balance looks like for you until I look at your:
Age
Gender
Activity level
Current habits
However, the best way to start understanding what your needs are is to learn what your food looks like now. Start tracking your food and evaluate your choices. I always say, what you measure you can manage and this is especially true when it comes to food!
If you’re mindlessly eating, you may not realize just how much - or how little - you’re eating! Both overeating and undereating can lead to health problems and weight gain! I would love to help you with customized macros so you can get a better understanding of what your body needs. Schedule a free discovery call with me to get started with macro tracking.
Habit #2: Get 8 hours of sleep
Can I get a YUP! if sleep is the first thing you give up when life gets busy? It is for me! I’m naturally a night owl and can easily stay up until the early morning hours if I need to. However, I’ve learned that staying up all night doesn’t serve me!
Sleep is one of the most important, and overlooked, aspects of health. During sleep, our body flushes out toxins that can cause disease, goes into fat-burning mode and restores energy levels.
If you aren’t getting at least seven, but preferably eight to nine, hours of sleep every night, then you’re doing yourself a huge disservice.
Quality sleep can’t happen without time. It takes five to six hours to get into REM sleep, where some of the most important processes happen. If you’re only getting five or six hours of sleep a night then your body can’t run through all of those important tasks!
The best way to ensure you’re getting enough sleep is to have a backward sleep plan. Instead of trying to sleep in to catch up on sleep - because we know with kids that isn’t always an option - determine when you need to wake up and count backward eight to nine hours to determine your bedtime.
Then treat yourself like your kids and make sure you’re in bed on time. Bonus, if your kids see you being strict with your bedtime they can’t ask to stay up late with you! It’s a win-win.
Habit #3: Drink enough water
Mama, I hate to break it to you, but you can’t live on coffee alone. Trust me, I’ve tried. Coffee is great, but it’s not essential to life like water is. One of the best ways to improve your health and lose weight is to drink an adequate amount of water for your body.
A lot of challenges and programs will push you to drink a couple of gallons of water every day. And for some people that’s fine, but again water, like nutrition, isn’t one-size-fits-all. Instead of focusing on drinking a gallon or two of water each day learn how much water YOU need.
The basic formula is to drink half your body weight in ounces. For example, if you weigh 150 lbs, you should drink 75 oz of water every day.
If you struggle to drink enough water each day, work your way up. I know you won’t go from 1-2 cups of water a day to 75 ounces - and if you do you’ll curse my name every time you run to the bathroom.
Instead, start by using the 8x3 method.
Drink 8 oz of water one hour before your meal
Drink 8 oz of water during your meal
Drink 8 oz of water 30-60 mins after your meal.
If you do this for 3 meals a day you’ll drink 72 oz of water in a day. It’s that easy!
Habit #4: Speak kindly to yourself
I’ve saved the best for last. Mama, I know you are your harshest critic, but I want to ask you why? Why do you need to be your harshest critic? And what would happen if you were your biggest cheerleader instead?
I tell the mamas in my Macros Made Easy program all the time, that if guilt, shame and regret helped them lose weight then I would smother them in it. I would shame them all day long. But it doesn’t help. Like at all. In fact, shame makes things so much worse! So you need to stop beating yourself up.
Show yourself some grace and forgiveness and then keep moving forward.
Weight loss and healthy living are 80% mindset and 20% nutrition. If you’re eating whole foods, hitting the gym, drinking your water and getting 8 hours of sleep but you’re beating yourself up with your thoughts and words, then you’re never going to lose weight.
You have to start changing how you talk about yourself. You have to start filling your mind with positive, uplifting words. You have to learn to love yourself as you are right now.
Yes, you can and should have goals, but until you learn to love yourself as you are right now, you’ll never feel like you’re good enough.
Self-love isn’t just about being the best, healthiest, prettiest versions of ourselves. It’s loving the woman who is right in front of you and acknowledging where you’ve come from and where you want to go.
I love this quote from Mel Robbins.
“Here's the profound insight I gained that I want you to hear: When you think you've messed something up, you start to hate yourself. When you hate yourself, you inevitably do things you hate. Your thoughts create a downward spiral.
I've also learned the opposite is true: When you love yourself, you inevitably do things you love. When you treat yourself with respect, you do respectable things. And when you celebrate yourself, you do things worth celebrating.”
When you start to make speaking kindly to yourself a habit, you’ll let go of the past and the hold that food has on you and you’ll start to make healthy choices because you care about yourself. And that will make the biggest change in your world.
In my Macros Made Easy program I combine all of these aspects of health: nutrition, sleep, water and mindset, into an actionable program that is tailored to your needs. Schedule a free discovery call with me today to start building the easy, healthy habits that will carry you through the crazy, busy times ahead.
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