The One Strong Mother Podcast

Redefining Weight Loss: Understanding Food Habits and Stress

• Ashley Mussyal and Charlie Sheamansmith

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This episode emphasizes the importance of allowing mothers to rest, nurtured by the guilt associated with parenting responsibilities. It discusses self-care, setting health goals, understanding nutrition and protein's role, and the significance of sustainable fitness practices for overall wellness.

• Tackling holiday break fatigue as a common challenge
• Overcoming guilt around resting as a mother
• The importance of setting sustainable health goals
• Understanding the essential role of protein in nutrition
• Practical tips for tracking dietary intake
• Emphasizing the benefits of weight training for women
• Choosing enjoyable fitness routines for long-term success
• Utilizing planners for accountability and goal-setting

Resources:
Free TDEE Calculator
90-Day Project Planner Episode
90-Day Project Planner 

Speaker 1:

Hey there, welcome to the One Strong Mother podcast, the space where empowering and inspiring moms unite to embrace strength, balance and well-being amidst the beautiful chaos of motherhood. I'm your host, ashley, a military spouse and mom of five walking this incredible path beside you. In each episode, I'll bring you candid conversations, expert insights and heartfelt stories that touch on every facet of modern motherhood. Whether you're sneaking in a listen during a quick coffee break or savoring those rare moments of quiet, together we'll tackle the hurdles, boost each other up and cement our place as the strong, resilient women we are designed to be. Thanks for tuning in and let's dive into today's episode. Shall we designed to be? Thanks for tuning in and let's dive into today's episode, shall we? Hello and welcome back to the One Strong Mother podcast.

Speaker 1:

I am so, so excited to record today's episode For one. I hope that you had a great holiday break. I am so glad my kids are back in school. I love my kids, but two weeks at home and a week long traveling to Mississippi and here, there and everywhere got to be a very long holiday break. So today they are back in school and I get to sit down and record an episode in peace, and I am so thankful. That is what I feel the most gratitude towards today is peace and quiet and a clean house that stays clean for more than five minutes, because, even though I have older kids, it feels like my house just gets undone within five minutes of cleaning one room. I know we all understand this, so I don't even have to elaborate on what this is like, because it is every mom's daily struggle. I am thankful for the days that it is minimized because my kids are in school, but you get what I mean and you understand the struggle. So if you were in my boat, congratulations for making it through the holiday break. If you were a stay-at-home mom, a work-from-home mom, my god power to you, because it's exhausting and it is not for the week, so good job. Give yourself a hug, give yourself a day to just rest. I am here to tell you that it is okay to just rest. Do not let yourself feel bad, do not let yourself feel guilty. It takes a lot to provide the happy, loving home that is for your kids. It takes a lot to meal plan. It takes a lot, a lot, a lot. So if you feel like you are tired and run down, I am here to be your BFF, that is giving you the permission and the grace to just sit down If you need to put on your favorite TV show, put on your favorite TV show. If you need to go take a nap, for the love of God, go take a nap, it's okay. It's okay and you don't owe anyone an explanation either.

Speaker 1:

This is something I didn't actually plan on talking about this, but while we're here, we are going to unpack this because this is something that took me years to understand that I used to feel so guilty because my husband has always been the working parent in the home, and so the dynamic is he's the working parent and I've been the parent, I've been the caregiver of our home, and I always felt bad and not that he ever verbally set these expectations of like you better work from nine to five, just like I do. It was never a conversation that we had. There was never any kind of expectation, but I I put this own like guilt looming over my head that if I'm not working when he's working, then I I'm being lazy, and I think that I'm not the only one. For a long time, I never even like actually said these things out loud because I didn't know that other women felt this way too. But I would put this like weird pressure on myself that like you're not allowed to sit down, you're not allowed to rest. It's the workday, so you better be doing something.

Speaker 1:

If your kids are calm, then go clean something, go organize something, like there's always things to be done. And while that's true like I even literally had to stop and take a breath just now because that's a lot it's a lot, it is true there is always something to do. But also, but also if you expect to be able to get all of those things done, then you have to take care of you first, and sometimes that means slowing down. Sometimes that means taking a break. Sometimes that means if I know that I am super run down and tired but I also have a lot to do, then it's okay to maybe stop and take like a 30 minute break now. It's okay to maybe stop and take like a 30 minute break now so I have more energy to be more productive later, versus fighting the exhaustion and fighting through all these chores where I'm going to kind of like maybe halfway put my effort into them versus all my effort. This was such a gift to myself to figure out, to give myself the permission and grace to just slow down. So, please, I invite you, enjoy this podcast episode. If you are in a position to just slow down, do just that.

Speaker 1:

I literally I knew I was going to be recording today and I am so excited to record today and I've had this episode planned. There was. There was no like work that needed to be done other than sit down and record it. But when it was time to sit down and record, I literally couldn't stop yawning. So I had to do just that and I almost fell into that guilt of like no, I've got to take advantage of all this quiet time. I have other things that need to be done too. We're about to get hit with the storm, so I need to go get these and this and this and this. I need to get this done. But I really need to get this podcast episode recorded and I need to start back into school and get my school stuff going again and building momentum with that.

Speaker 1:

I was so tired that I couldn't think straight, so I had to make the executive decision, Like, if I want to be productive, then yes, I am going to have to take a small nap. I am going to lay down, I'm going to rest my mind. My kids are at school, it's quiet. I get the, I get the benefit of of that quiet in the house, so I'm going to use it to my full advantage. I'm going to rest my brain and then I'm going to wake up and then I'm going to record with a fresh mind and hopefully just hopefully I won't be yawning every 30 seconds. So and that's I do I feel very refreshed, so I'm very glad I did that for myself. So again, I'm going to repeat myself here Give yourself the grace, gratitude and the permission to go rest, go take a nap, go turn on your favorite TV show or enjoy this podcast to the fullest in your PJs, messy bun, maybe a hoodie, a blanket, whatever you need. Just let yourself rest because, seriously, we survived the freaking holiday weekend or weekend. I wish the holiday break and you deserve some quiet time, so give it to yourself. Okay, now, now we can. Now I'm done with my little rant and tangent on rest, because we all need it. But um, now let's get to the real topic.

Speaker 1:

I am I was so excited I have planned this episode. I love talking about health and wellness. I used to run my own personal training and nutrition business. That's what I did for several years before I started this podcast, and then I got to really hone in on those skills whenever I worked at the physical therapy clinic before we moved to Texas. So I have spent years acquiring knowledge and abilities and I just genuinely love to share it. I am in a position where, like I, was really burnt out on the business side of things in that regard. So I am just I'm in a position where I get to share this knowledge for free and that makes me so incredibly happy. It is value that I think that everybody should have access to, and if I have the ability and the credentials and the knowledge to do so, then I feel like it's an obligation and a privilege at the same time to be able to share that information with you. Excuse me, and what better time than the New Year's? I just put out that episode about the 90-day project planner. I just put out that episode about the 90-day project planner. How exciting. You have resources like the planner. Now what do you put in it? It's the new year. I know as a mom.

Speaker 1:

Almost the entire world has a goal of getting their life in better shape right. It always feels like it's always part of your yearly goals. There's obviously going to be external goals outside of your health, but your health is typically always something that people are trying to improve on. So I thought it would be a great time to record an episode like this and help you if, if maybe weight loss is a goal which I will dive into, even that in and of itself, weight loss should be a result of a, a goal which I will dive into. Even that in and of itself, weight loss should be a result of a different goal maybe not specifically the goal, but we can dive into that.

Speaker 1:

But if anything around specifically nutrition and maybe a workout program, I think I'll probably cover more on nutrition than I will a workout program, but I will hit on the workout side as well. But I won't provide like a ton of deep knowledge on that because it tends to be pretty easy to just pick a program and stick to it. But again, we'll dive more into it. But I think I do see the benefit of diving deeper into the nutrition as a whole. So let's do it. Actually. I will start with fitness. No, actually we're going to start with the goals first. We're going to start with the goals and break down how to set specific goals around health and wellness.

Speaker 1:

So fitness and nutrition, right?

Speaker 1:

What are you looking for? Weight loss is. It seems like an easy target, an easy thing to chase because it's definitive, but at the same time, it may not be exactly how you want to go about it, because you may not actually solve the problem of why you need to lose weight in the first place. So that's the biggest thing, right? Is I? Even myself like I have weight that I would like to shed? But also, what caused me to gain that weight in the first place? Well, it's because I got super stressed out and I let my eating habits change and I need to hone those eating habits back in.

Speaker 1:

So now, instead of my goal being I would like to lose 10 pounds, my goal is I am going to really focus on eating higher quality, more lean protein options for myself, because that is an area that I tend to struggle with. I don't always enjoy eating meat. I am by no means a vegetarian, but, in no disrespect to people who choose that lifestyle, it's just not a lifestyle for me, but I don't always love it. I think it more comes down to my little ADHD brain doesn't like to slow down long enough to feel like I need to cook a meal, and sometimes I forget to meal prep the night before or like save a container of leftovers for myself. I'm better when I'm working in an office, because then I don't have a choice, and so I do tend to be more organized when it comes to my lunches for the next day. So that could be a great way to reshift.

Speaker 1:

That goal is not to lose 10 pounds, but to focus on more higher quality lean protein options. Well, what's going to happen when I do that is, I'm going to be more diligent about my food consumption. I'm going to track certain things about my food consumption, and that weight loss is going to come as a result of putting in the effort towards my actual physical goal, versus if I'm just focused on losing 10 pounds. I'm still not going to do it the right way. I'm still not getting to the root cause of why I need to lose the 10 pounds in the first place. The root cause is my eating habits changed. Well, yes, of course you're going to like hit your eating habits a little bit, but if you're, if you're already struggling with not eating a lot of protein, and protein is what makes you look like that, that it gives you that lean physique that everyone is after, and don't. Real people don't realize that, and I will break that down here in just a bit. But if you aren't able to address that root cause, then you're going to eat less calories, sure, but I'm still not actually going to be after the body that I'm looking for. Maybe I do drop the 10 pounds, but at the end of the day, my the root cause didn't change. I still am not eating good protein choices, and so therefore, once the weight's off, the odds of it coming back are even greater, because it wasn't the right type of goal for what I'm after in my health and wellness journey.

Speaker 1:

So how do we break this down? So, if you are someone who wants to lose weight and you know that you need to eat fewer calories, I'm going to put this in a way that does not cater to any one style of eating. I'm going to give you the knowledge that you need on food in general so you can make appropriate choices on how you want to go about your diet changes. So, because I do not believe in diets, I believe in lifestyle and sustainability. So it has to be a choice. This is why you will never see me promoting any style of eating.

Speaker 1:

Keto can be great for people. Intermittent fasting can be great for people. Tracking macros can be great for other people All the things. There are a couple of things that I would never put my name to, like the Optivia or I don't, I don't know. I don't even know how much I hate it. It's so bad for you. Things that put you in like the most extreme calorie deficit. I would never, ever, ever, even discuss Having a conversation with someone. I wouldn't even consider the idea of having a conversation on why it would be beneficial for some people, because it's not. It's very dangerous and it's way too low calorie.

Speaker 1:

And the second you come off of it, you're going to gain the weight back. So my job here is to give you all the knowledge that you would need as far as nutrition goes, so you can pick a lifestyle that makes the most sense to you. And the one question I want you to focus on is does this feel like this is something that I can sustain for the rest of my life? Because that's what this is. It's the game of life, it's not the game of cool, I lost 10 pounds. The game's over, I won. You did win. You did lose weight and you improved your health by losing that weight, if that's what your body needed. But also, now what? If you still don't understand nutrition, then you still don't understand how to defeat the root cause of what got you there in the first place and why you need to lose 10 pounds.

Speaker 1:

So let's break it down. If you ever hear someone talking about macros and you don't know what that means, please don't stress. It's just proteins, fats and carbs. All foods, for the most part, have proteins, fats and carbs in them. Your body is going to need protein, fats and carbs. Yes, I said it, it also needs carbs. So please don't be scared of carbs. Carbs are not the enemy.

Speaker 1:

What you need to know about carbs and fats is, for the most part, they are energy sources for your body. Protein is repair. Protein helps rebuild your body. Protein puts things back together. Fats and carbs supply energy in very different ways from each other. One is slower, one is faster, but for the most part, that's what they do for you. Obviously, fats hold a different job in the body as well, but this is a very I want this to be more of a surface level where you can walk away, you can listen to the information and say, oh, okay, I get it Very applicable, very easy to understand. Maybe another day I would love to have a guest come on that we could speak in deeper levels and go a little bit deeper than surface level, but for now, that's what you need to know. Protein and fats are energy sources. They give your body energy, and carbs and fats give your body energy, and protein rebuilds. Okay, so when? That's why when you, if you watch YouTube or you're on Instagram and you hear people talk about get your protein in after a workout I'm not a huge advocate on timing.

Speaker 1:

It doesn't always work out as the lifestyle of a mom, but there is some truth to it. Protein is what is going to start the rebuild of your body after you break those muscles down and it's what gives you that tight those muscles down and it's what gives you that tight, lean physique that we are all, for the most part, after. So your body needs specific amounts of these things. I used to be really rigid on counting macros and like, oh, I only need I'm gonna 130 grams of, or 200 and some grams of carbs and 100 grams of fat and 150 grams of protein. I used to be really specific. The beautiful thing is is because you can look at fats and carbs in the same category genre of energy. It actually does not have to be super rigid. Those can come naturally in whatever order. I wouldn't care about tracking them too specific.

Speaker 1:

Protein is a good thing to track. Maybe I really prefer a one-to-one ratio within a healthy range. So for me, for my body, I am not very obese, right Like I am sitting right at 160 pounds right now, and so my goal is to get anywhere from 140 to 160 grams of protein in a day. I will break down how you do that, what that looks like, how you measure that here in just a bit. But that is my goal is getting almost to a one-to-one ratio in pounds to grams of protein. As far as the uh fats and carbs Sorry how my brain is like I get so distracted so easily. I'm sitting here watching the microphone like the little, the volume levels, and sometimes I see it spike and I'm like, oh God, am I talking too loud? Anyways, sorry, I'm squirreling. As far as the fats and carbs, let those come naturally.

Speaker 1:

I do believe that everyone should learn and understand how to track calories, because that is the only way to start understanding portion control and portion sizes. If you don't necessarily want to track full on calories which I do think is important for a little bit it does not have to be forever, but I think for a little bit At least track portion sizes like measure your food for a while so you can see those portion sizes. It's very, very, very easy to overeat Down to. If you're adding oil to the pan, that also counts. Those are calories that stick to your food. If you're cooking let's say you're cooking chicken in a pan and you have to add oil, guess what? That oil sticks to the chicken and you have to absolutely understand that your body just consumed those extra calories. Oil is not cheap in the concept of calories, so they do count. So this is where it's very, very, very important to at least understand what it looks like to track calories for a while so you can start to learn how to eyeball.

Speaker 1:

I'm at the point now where I don't rigidly track every now and then I will do like a week of tracking just to like kind of check myself and make sure that I am on the right path of oh yeah, that definitely looked like like, let's say, when I'm scooping out a serving of rice out of our rice cooker, I very rarely will I measure it, but every now and then I will stick my plate on the scale and measure as I'm putting the rice down, so I can kind of just reaffirm that visual factor of oh yeah, that is a serving of rice. I'm good to go. Sometimes I'll eat one, sometimes I'll eat two. But rice is another one of those Like it gets expensive in the form of calories because, if I remember correctly, like one serving of rice is like 44 grams of carbs.

Speaker 1:

That's a lot, especially and it does not feel like very much rice. It's not filling, not whenever you're a busy person. So it's important to understand portion sizes and this is how we gain weight, because they don't feel big, they don't fill us up. Starchy foods do not sit heavy with me. They don't fill me up and so I tend to eat. I can easily overeat on starchy foods. So potatoes, rice, especially. Again, there's this whole thing with rice Like we could break down. It's so hard for me to stay surface level because I'm such a nerd for this stuff that like I want to break down that, like when you refrigerate rice, it changes the starch compounds of the rice and it'll change the way your body metabolizes it and all these things, but it's not important.

Speaker 1:

What you need to know is for now please measure your food and you don't know. If you don't have a scale, you don't have to do it with a scale, just do it with a measuring cup. Look up what a serving size of rice is and just do it with a measuring cup. It's totally fine. I have a scale, I have those resources. They're not that expensive. So if you can afford to go grab one from Target or Walmart or anywhere, go get one. It does make life easier in, like when you're weighing out your meats and all those kind of things. But again, you don't have to have that to be successful at all, not even the slightest. So that is something that's important.

Speaker 1:

I am going to link a source that will help you calculate your TDE If you do not know what this is. It stands for total daily energy expenditure, the number that is spit out whenever you put in the information into this very free resource. It's amazing because it is free and it is super accurate. It's amazing because it is free and it is super accurate. It's accurate enough to get you going. For sure. This number is the number of calories that you will need in a day to completely maintain where you're at. So the number that gets spit out the cool thing about this is this is what number you can go off of if you want to lose weight, put yourself in a deficit.

Speaker 1:

So I tend to only like to put myself in like a 200 to 300 calorie deficit. I do not like to put myself in a 500 calorie deficit. I tend to not function as well. But it's personal, like that's a personal decision, so that's up to you. How aggressive do you want to be with changing your lifestyle? I think it's easier to change your lifestyle when it feels more sustainable, and for me that is a two to 300 calorie deficit, no more. At that point it no longer feels sustainable because my body's just not happy. It doesn't function, it gets tired, it gets weak. I don't progress in the gym. It gets tired, it gets weak, I don't progress in the gym, those sorts of things.

Speaker 1:

So TDEE, it's so important. It is what you will need to know to your maintenance calories and that is where, if you are a super underweight person and you want to gain weight, you want to gain muscle. You still need this number and you're going to add calories in a surplus versus someone who's wanting to get smaller. You are going to subtract calories, be in a deficit. So that's what that means. Please don't look, don't even go down the rabbit hole of Googling. How do I calculate my TDEE? There's so many different formulas. Please just use the free resource, it um. It's not even like. It's not my calculations, it is a um, it's a resource that I use, that I just it's very commonly known Um and it is automatically calculated for you. It takes your personal information. Great if you know your BMI. Also, okay if you don't know your BMI.

Speaker 1:

Another option if you, if you really really want to get specific, is there are some gyms, there are some doctor's offices that have fancy BMI scales that you can go and get, like I'm trying to think of. I can't even think. Evolt is a brand like the scans that do like you hold onto handles in your feet and it basically just internally scans your body and it'll tell you all sorts of information. Oh, my God, it's not a DEXA scan, because DEXA scan is like the step up and those are usually pretty pricey. These I know, like back in Wyoming, the doctor's office that I was affiliated with um 25 bucks and you could go get a fancy scan and and you get a printout and you have all the information that you need, and you do this once a quarter. Then it's very easy to track your stuff and stay on top of things. So that is an option too.

Speaker 1:

If you do truly want to be a lot more specific than the free resource, totally fine. In fact, I highly encourage it. But I do like to provide free resources because I think it's important, like I said earlier, like I think that all of this information should be free. Don't get me wrong. I loved my business, but so many times, being from a military community, there's so many times that I can't afford. I couldn't afford to have been able to pay somebody, and that was quite literally the reason I got into. It was because I couldn't afford it. So I might as well learn this stuff myself for selfish reasons. So I just I love being able to pass free information along, and so of course, I'm going to provide a free resource. But if you do want to be more specific, there are paid resources out there that you can go, get these scans and have very, very, very accurate information to help you moving forward. So that's how you calculate being in a deficit or in a surplus. That's what you need to know. Is your TDEE for your maintenance calories, that if you don't want your body to change at all, then stay with that number, totally fine. And then once, as you work out like, you're still going to have the ability to build muscle, which is beautiful.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk about how I think a lot of people get hung up on. Okay, you told me, let's talk protein. You told me that I need to eat my body weight in grams of protein. What does that even mean? And it seems, because I've been doing this for so long, I forget that people don't know what that means. So let's, let's break it down. What that means is if you were to take a four ounce piece of chicken so a lot of people confuse weighing your food Does that mean four grams or grams on the scale? No, so you're going to weigh your food in ounces on the scale. A four ounce piece of chicken is going to come out to being and this is raw, I, I.

Speaker 1:

There's this eternal debate on whether you weigh food raw or cooked. I could get into that. I'm not going to get into that. It's whatever works conveniently for you. We do it both ways in the house. We just try to be consistent with whatever way we do it. I tend to weigh my food raw, but a lot of times my husband meal preps this certain type of chicken recipe and it's so much easier to, just because it's cooked in the crock pot, it's so much easier. And then shredded, so much easier to cook it and then weigh it once it's already cooked, into individual servings and then prep it up and put it in the freezer. So it depends on like it's just not a big deal to me, like it's just not a deal breaker and it's not worth spending a lot of time on like I don't know what to do, just pick one and do it. That's like that's all there is to it. So a piece of chicken four ounce chicken it's uncooked that is going to run you about 25 grams of protein. So if you have a checklist for the day of you're trying to meet 140 grams of protein in a day, you can now subtract 25 from 140 because you just consumed four ounces of chicken. So that's an easy example, but there is quite literally protein in everything that we consume and that does go toward. It doesn't have to just come from from pro like meat sources right, if you, let's see, we had. I'm going to use this example because we just cooked this the other night.

Speaker 1:

My family is in love with pasta and Alfredo sauce and so I like to buy this tortellini pot like fresh bakery style tortellini pasta from Market Street. And if you look at the packet, like the info on the back of the package, one serving of this pasta has 12 grams of protein, because the tortellini is packed with different cheeses. Dairy has a lot of protein. We are not a dairy sensitive family, so we do consume dairy. So that's that's great, because dairy has a lot of protein in it. It does come with fats and carbs too. Like that is a trade-off. Like there are fats and carbs in it and you track all of it. Like if you are someone who's tracking your macros, you track all of it but it counts. Just because I'm not eating all meat, that protein that comes from that cheese still counts. Your body still breaks it down and utilizes it. So that's the beautiful thing is, protein comes from everything it. So that's the beautiful thing is, protein comes from everything.

Speaker 1:

So all I do is I get a serving of this pasta and I, like I, I'm going to track 12 grams. I'm going to track a little bit more because there's protein in the pasta sauce as well, because it has a little bit of milk in it Um, some heavy cream. Um, it has a little bit more cheese, like I, it doesn't have a whole lot of protein, it's mostly broth, which this sounds like a terrible. Saying it out loud sounds really gross, but it's actually like my favorite recipe to make, because my kids are obsessed with it. This is why we have it all the time. I learned how to make this while we lived in Germany and it's a very like European Italian pasta recipe and it's the most amazing thing ever and my kids will eat it every night of the week if I let them. But nonetheless, there is protein in the pasta, the pasta sauce, all of it. So it all counts right.

Speaker 1:

So if I were to eat this meal, I am going to portion out. Probably like six ounces is the most I tend to eat of chicken. I don't like eating more of that. I get burnt out on chicken super quickly. So I'm going to I'm going to give myself a six ounce portion of chicken. Let's calculate that at I don't know 35 grams of protein. Okay, so you have 35 grams of protein. I'm. I just got a one serving of pasta with the sauce. I'm going to probably track it as 15 grams of protein because of the sauce included. So 35 plus 15 is what?

Speaker 1:

50 grams of protein, 50 grams, that's a great meal. That's a great amount. Your body is going to utilize all of that. Your body does max out at some point on like what it can utilize in protein at a time. So 50 grams, like that's an amazing. So if you think about it, if we did that three times a day, it's 150 grams of protein in a day.

Speaker 1:

If you can find a way to get 50 grams of protein with each meal. Breakfast tends to be the hardest for me to get that much protein, but if there's a way you can find that, then you just like that's pretty easy to hit on on your protein goals. But that is what that looks like as far as. How do I track this? What does that mean? Is what that looks like as far as. How do I track this? What does that mean. How do I do this? That's what that means.

Speaker 1:

Everything has protein in it, down to. If you wanted to eat a bagel for breakfast Bagels, I love this. They have about 10 to 12 grams of protein in the bagel. Does that mean it's the most high quality, great source of protein that you can be getting? No, no, it's not, but that's okay. It's still protein and your body's still going to utilize it. That doesn't mean that I want every gram of protein coming from a carb source, because your body is going to be very tired and sluggish because that's a hell of a lot of carbs. But nonetheless, there should be no shame around where all of your grams of protein come from. You should just know that there is protein in almost everything that you consume and it all counts.

Speaker 1:

Some people get really hung up on this of like I can't eat that much meat. Cool, you don't have to, do you like yogurt? There's a lot of freaking protein in yogurt, depending on which kind you buy. Preferably not super sugary yogurts tend to have a lot less, but one of my favorite brands is the Oikos, I think that's how you say it. Those have, I think, if I remember correctly, 15 to 20 grams of protein. Remember correctly, 15 to 20 grams of protein. So that's a great like. That's a great thing to have on the side with your breakfast. That's a lot of protein. So there's lots of creative ways to get your protein and I love them all. Like right now in my fridge. I've been buying.

Speaker 1:

I don't always like to sit down and eat yogurt and that's a whole. Nother thing is like. You don't have to pick things that you don't like just for the sake of consuming calories towards your goal. It is super important to enjoy what you're consuming, because of the way your body metabolizes is affected by whether or not you like what you're consuming or not. So I don't always like yogurt. I don't like the texture. It's weird to me. I do not like squishy things. It's just a sensory thing for me. So I have been enjoying.

Speaker 1:

Oikos has like a yogurt drink. Think Danimals. For children it's like the adult version of Danimals, but it still follows their traditional like. There's not, there's like hardly any sugars in it. I think the macros on it.

Speaker 1:

I was looking at one last night. It's one and a half grams of fat, eight grams of carbs and 23 grams of protein. That's amazing. Like. That's super, super cool because it's a lot of protein, but it still leaves a lot of room to consume other food with it. It's not so high in carbs and fats that I can't afford. If you're thinking about food as a price tag, I can still afford to eat other things and charge my account of calories and be full Like it can help fill me up. It's just a great source of protein whenever you are on a tight budget of calories when you're trying to lose weight.

Speaker 1:

So I love stuff like that. Like I love finding little tricks like that to get a lot of protein when I'm just not in the mood. I'm also just not a big eater in the morning, so I don't like eating a lot of food. That's just something I've kind of developed over the years. I definitely don't like eating big heavy meals. Like I don't like meat in the mornings. My stomach just does not enjoy eggs either anymore, so I do tend to have a very hard time in the mornings getting my protein. So finding something like that is a beautiful thing.

Speaker 1:

So everything that I just said about understanding protein and like how to track the grams and all that sort of stuff it applies also to carbs and fats as well, it gets a little bit easier tracking carbs and fats because everything that carbs and fats come in have a food label. Proteins don't always have a food label that are going to break it down, so sometimes you kind of have to Google or you can use an app, whatever. But, um, and then on the food label it's going to tell you how big that portion size is and that's how you're going to track. So on your bread, like your sandwich bread that you buy from the store, you're going to have a food label that tells you the top one is going to be listed as fat, the carbs is usually in the middle, and then the protein is down towards the bottom and then under each of those it's going to tell you like how much sodium and how many, like saturated or polysaturated or monounsaturated, all the things. At this point again, keeping things super surface level, don't get too caught up on sodium and cholesterol and like all the you know all those things. Just get in the habit of understanding the nutrition that you're consuming and portion sizes and tracking your protein, and I promise you that you'll be in the step in the right direction to creating a sustainable lifestyle that you can grow and adapt and build on for the rest of your life.

Speaker 1:

That is the important thing here is, if you are just starting out, and as a mom, especially a stay-at-home mom the last thing you need is to overcomplicate something that doesn't have to be complicated. Just simply focus on getting enough protein. Your body will feel less sluggish. If you do, um, the fats and carbs will come naturally. Learn how to simply track calories. If you use an app, it is way more convenient and easier to adapt to this lifestyle.

Speaker 1:

Um, there is my fitness pal. First form is my personal favorite. I love the first form app and that is if you don't know what I'm talking about. First Form is a supplement company and they have their own app and it's beautiful, it's so easy and they actually have workout programs on there, which I'll get into in a little bit. I want to say it's like $14 a month, but it's totally worth it because you actually do get access to so many things, whereas I don't know if on MyFitnessPal it's been so many years since I've looked inside MyFitnessPal I don't think that they have workout programs, but I could be wrong, so please don't hold me to that one, but nonetheless, they both do the same thing, you can calculate macros within these apps, and they have the convenience of being able to scan the barcode and it will basically track everything for you, and so then you just get the ability to put in, like, how much of these things did you eat? And so you really don't have to know how to do the math on any of it and you have the ability to track everything.

Speaker 1:

As far as the First Form app goes, though, like I said, there is so much more, so you do have the option to have an accountability coach. This comes with a grain of salt, because it could be like there's no certification required for this, so you don't know necessarily that you're working with a certified nutrition coach or somebody who even has like any background Like, and the reason I know this is because I used to be a coach on the First Form app and so and it you do have to take trainings in there in the back end, but to say it's enough training to be a quality coach is not really I wouldn't put too much too much trust in. There's been some bad information, but the app itself is beautiful and you know you could just use it as accountability Like if you just need someone to talk to and to like bounce ideas off of. You have that Like. So having an accountability coach is a beautiful thing. I'm just saying take it with a grain of salt that there might be some bad information. There might not be like, it just depends on who you get and what knowledge base they come with. But there is also several different types of workout programs that you have access to and you don't. It does not cost anything extra. You have everything. Literally, you have everything at your fingertips, and so that's what makes it so so, so beautiful. And you have the accountability trackers where you can like mark off the activities that you've done. You have so many things for resources within this app that, like it truly is. It's a very special. I think that they put a lot of time and effort and invested a lot of money into this app and it shows because it is my personal favorite I love using this app. I am not a coach in it anymore, but it's a beautiful app. It's great for tracking those habits and really, if you don't know a lot of knowledge, it's a great place to start for sure. So that is pretty much all I'm going to cover.

Speaker 1:

On the nutrition part. I do want to keep it super surface level, but enough knowledge to get you started. I think that the best place to start is just simply understanding what calories you need, that fats and carbs are energy, and protein is what rebuilds the body. And then the importance of tracking protein starting with protein, because it is way easier to get all your fats and carbs. It is not always the easiest to get all your protein, so starting with that is the best starting place, and it will result in how your body looks. You may not even be in a calorie deficit, but as soon as you start eating more protein and maybe just a little bit less fasting carbs and balance them out a little bit more, your body is going to change and definitely look a lot leaner, even if it's not actually losing weight.

Speaker 1:

So, um and uh, well, I was going to go deeper on that, but I'm not going to today. That's a conversation for another day. Um, so, let's, let's shift over to fitness. This one does not have to be nearly as complicated, but I do want you to think of it in the same sense as what I mentioned at the beginning of talking about the nutrition. Simply ask yourself does this feel sustainable? And if so, just go with that. Pick a style of workout Like what do you enjoy? There are going to be certain styles that give you different types of results, and that's okay. It has to be what you're after. Understand that lifting weights and this. I do want to go deeper on this again another day and hold interviews with way smarter people than me.

Speaker 1:

Lifting weights is so important, especially as a female. It will not make you bulky. If you could even remotely understand that. The amount of time and effort and and knowledge that goes into actually getting bulky is insane and it breaks my heart that any woman believes that lifting weights heavy, especially heavy weights will make them bulky. It takes so much effort in supplements and years to get bulky. You are not going to get bulky, I promise, but the health benefits far outweigh the fear of getting bulky. The benefits that come from lifting weights in just the fact that it reduces the potential for memory problems, like we're talking, dementia and Alzheimer's. The fact that it will get you through menopause in a better fashion perimenopause it has the ability to delay perimenopause. So many things come from lifting weights for women metabolically health-wise. So many things. But also the more muscle your body holds, the more you burn through calories. So building muscle is a huge gift to us, because your body becomes a hot burning machine.

Speaker 1:

So I will say that that is something that is valid to know is please, whatever style of working out you pick, pick some that includes weights. Don't. Don't go run on the treadmill. Please do include cardio, but also include weights. It's so, so important. I'm not asking you to go be a bodybuilder and I'm not asking you to go be some diehard CrossFitter, but if those are styles that you enjoy, then pick that, because it does matter to be happy. That's what I'm saying. Pick something that feels sustainable and safe for your body, but let it be something that includes lifting heavy weights for yourself. It's so important and, as this podcast grows, I promise you I will hold interviews with people with much deeper knowledge on these topics, because I do like. I wish that I could scream it from the rooftops Every woman on this planet should be lifting weights in some way, shape or form.

Speaker 1:

Lift weights, but there's plenty of ways to do this. Like I said, there's bodybuilding, there's training programs. If you are someone who just like, maybe you don't need a personal trainer, there's plenty of training programs out there that give enough guidance and programming that you could totally go follow a program, but you can just do it on your own in a gym. That's it is why I love the First Form app. The First Form app is great. Like if you don't know what an exercise is, typically there's videos included within those exercises. Like you can click on the exercise and it will include a video to show you how to do something. So that's great. There's not a lot of thought and like questioning, like I don't know if I'm doing this right. Of course, if you have the funds and the financial means to work with a trainer, do so.

Speaker 1:

A trainer is great because it's another level of accountability and you can completely customize your goals and your abilities and holding yourself accountable and, honestly, not even the accountability part, but having someone to cheer you on in the gym is such a great feeling. I was just telling my husband this the other day, like we don't always train together and that's okay, but recently I told him like I would love to start working out at the same time. Like we don't even have to say follow the same training program, but being in the gym at the same time and having each other to celebrate just gym wins is such a great feeling. I love having time with him in the gym to celebrate and just having someone cheer you on Like when you're doing something hard, it gets lonely, and so a trainer is really great for that, because they get to celebrate with you and not just be the bad guy of holding you accountable of like why aren't you doing this or you should be doing that, but they are there to celebrate and cheer you on too. So that's great. Honestly, I think for today's episode, like that's as deep as it needs to go on the fitness part the nutrition gets to be. That is truly what hangs people up is the nutrition versus the fitness. The fitness is the fun part. The nutrition is the part that nobody wants to face because it feels so overwhelming, because there's so much information out there, that people just end up feeling like they don't know where to start, so they don't start at all. So I hope that this helped and of course, I'm going to tie it all into the planner and I think that everybody could benefit, even if it is a health journey.

Speaker 1:

The planner is quite literally designed to help you with these things, because you've just made this goal, but it helps you get extremely specific on the goal. The planner will walk you through it and get you extremely specific on what exactly you want to work through. And then you have this space. It's another form of accountability. You have the space to set your goals on a daily basis. What are your non-negotiables? What are you working on? What are you focusing on? What are you focusing on? You have the page for your thoughts so you can like kind of journal at the end of the day of this worked and this didn't.

Speaker 1:

Or I really struggled with this lift. I really struggled meeting my protein today. What can I do tomorrow? You know all those kind of things. So if you were looking for a tool to hold you accountable and to walk through 2025 on your health journey with you, the 90 Day Project Planner is the perfect tool. It will not let you down, it will only build you up. So please check it out. I will link the planner and the episode. I will link the episode, but it is the episode that was recorded right before this episode. So if you want to hear more details about the planner, go check out that episode as well. And I dive really deep into each section of the planner and why it's there and how to use it. So until next time, ladies, don't forget to be one strong mother.