Quick Nutrition Wins to Boost Your Health Wellness Journey 🍎

“The food you eat can either be the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.” – Ann Wigmore

Okay, truthfully, I hate the nutrition side of the health/wellness spectrum. I dislike cooking, I have a major sweet tooth, and I hate all the confusion around this topic. I also think that as I’ve aged my body reacts differently to foods and that also annoys me. 😊 But, I know the importance of proper nutrition because I’ve felt it in my own life and I do believe the statistics and studies. I do believe and know I feel better when I eat better. And as they say, “You can’t out-train a bad diet” as much as I wish that wasn’t true. So, today, I’m not going to try to convince you to eat a certain way, I’m going to just impart a few of my favorite nutrition tips in the hopes that one of them might make your life just a little bit better and bring you closer to that “fitness” side of the spectrum.

Health Wellness Spectrum:
Before we dive into this month’s Elevate Livin’ Life E-newsletter I wanted to mention that if you missed our last newsletter you might want to take a few minutes to go read that one by clicking HERE. Or a short summary of it is the importance of “frontloading” your health by focusing on wellness now to prepare for future challenges. Being in good health can make all the difference when unexpected crises arise. We also touched briefly on the five pillars of health: Eat, Sleep, Train, Think, and Connect. Each of these factors plays a crucial role in building a strong foundation for your long-term wellness. This will help you understand today’s reading and the next few ones as well. 

It’s My Way or the Highway

• One of my main beefs with the nutrition topic is the industry is challenging because everyone has different opinions of what you should be doing. We all say you should eat healthy, but there’s so much information on whether that means; keto, fasting, Paleo, no carbs, some carbs, yada yada. It’s exhausting to keep track of it and to know what to do, especially if you are starting out with no knowledge whatsoever (which is okay!!)
• Obviously, I’m really interested and care about health and fitness and I still feel really lost half the time when it comes to nutrition. I’ve had it on my to do list for a few months to actually go see a nutrionist…do you know a good one?? To hopefully dial in more of my own nutrition and what my body needs. I’m sharing this because for someone who does care about this I still feel confused a lot of the time so if you do too, you’re not alone.
• All that being said, I truly believe that not one way is the right way for everyone. Everyone’s body is different, everyone’s fitness levels are different, and heck, even just male bodies versus female bodies are in need of different things. And younger bodies versus older bodies and so on. So, work to find what YOUR body needs and tweak from there.

It’s a BILLION Dollar Industry:
Imagine this: you’ve just finished dinner and a sweet tooth kicks in. You grab a piece of chocolate, enjoying that first bite. But a few minutes later, you find yourself reaching for another, thinking, ‘Just one more won’t hurt.’  And then after that one you think the same thoughts and reach for another. This cycle continues, and soon you realize that one piece is never enough. Why? Because that chocolate was engineered in a lab to make you crave more. And more. And more.
 
Okay, this is a bit extreme and I do know lots of friends that can just have one chocolate after dinner. I’m not one of them so if you aren’t either, keep this in mind, so you don’t beat yourself up too much, this is a billion-dollar industry. Not millions, but billions. Billions of dollars are spent in the food industry alone so companies will pay big money to scientists to create addictive products.  Just being conscious of this can help me break out of that unhealthy cycle of “just one more” craving…at least sometimes.

Basic Principles: 

• Eat real food
  • As CrossFit likes to say: “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.” But really, just stop with all the processed foods (as much as you can) and think of your body in terms of a machine. To make the machine work better, what can you feed it to do that?
    • Actionable step: Start by eliminating one processed food item from your meals each week—it’s all about small, manageable changes.
• Decrease your sugar intake
  • Be AWARE of your sugar intake. And I’m not just talking about those yummy cookies at Subway, or the cupcakes at your kid’s birthday party…that I sure had a lot of this past weekend. 😊 I’m actually talking mostly about the sugars hidden in your everyday foods.
    • So, do me a favor, spend a few days watching the labels on the back of your food to see how much “added sugar” is there. You might be shocked….or validated, why something tastes so good when you see the ADDED sugar.
      • Okay, real life story here, after months of drinking a post workout concoction that I thought was healthy because it came form a reputable company I actually stopped to read the ingredients and was SHOCKED with how much sugar was in it! I know in a way that was the point, to help my body recover but I did not need that on a daily basis. So, I’ve worked to tweak my post workout refueling plan now and it was just such a good reminder that I always need to double check the labels, regardless of who the food is from. 
    • I have done the Whole 30 food challenge a few times in my life and I’m still in awe of what they call the “sugar dragon”. Basically it’s your sweet tooth craving and what they say is usually after 30 days of eating their way (which is not that hard to follow) you will kill the sugar dragon and not have those sweet tooth cravings anymore. This is so trueeeeeee!!! And it surprises me every time. I do eventually eat something super sugary within weeks of finishing Whole 30 so I’ve never tested it out long term, but for those few weeks I do not have a sweet tooth craving at all! It’s crazy to me and just reinforces the idea of the addictive billion-dollar industry we live in.
• Chow down on those fruits and vegetables
  • I did a wellness challenge in the spring and was actually shocked how some days I crushed the fruits and vegetables servings per day and other days, I miserably failed. So, I tried to remind myself, a few carrots here or there can go a long way. Try adding baby carrots to every lunch and dinner, just a few on the side.
• Who’s ready to fast with me?!
  • Just kidding, I actually do not like the fasting ideas for my own body. If I work out on an empty stomach, I am not achieving an optimal workout so I don’t do it. That being said, I know of some family members that intermittent fasting has really helped so I think there is a lot of good that could come of it, so perhaps check it out.
  • I will say this though, watching what time you STOP eating each night could be good for everyone. I try to not eat anything after 8 PM (usually even earlier) and I go to bed by 9:30 PM. This works great for me but you’ll need to find your own eating windows.
• Now that’s what I call high-quality H2O!
  • Drink up that water and stop drinking that soda. If you’re a soda drinker, go to ChatGPT and ask it “share with me some statistics on what soda does to you if you drink it daily”.
    • Okay, so I have strong opinions about soda and then this one little podcast on the Huberman Lab slightly popped that bubble of mine! This fella said that SOMETIMES soda is not a bad thing. His philosophy is for people that are overweight and drink soda that the answer might not be to stop drinking all the soda because they may go try to find that sugar fix somewhere else that has even more calories than DIET soda (his opinion, not mine) is actually a better option than regular soda or just a bunch of candy. When I took this perspective I could see how in certain circumstances it might be okay. Obviously he and I believe no soda or unhealthy levels of treats is the answer but sometimes people aren’t there …yet…. Anyways, it was a good podcast to help me have some devil’s advocate viewpoints on nutrition. 
  • If you’re not naturally good at drinking your water, then change your tactics.
    • Get a new style of water bottle (straws are great!)
    • Get a tracker on your phone to track your water intake
    • Have water bottles throughout your house/office so you always have it easily accessible

The Willpower Instinct: 
I read this book so many years ago but I still think about it often, so check it out if it interests you. Click HERE. Otherwise, here are my favorite takeaways from this book that I hope can help you on your nutrition journey. Truthfully, I don’t implement them often enough but I do think about them and believe if you can practice these steps they will help you if you struggle with willpower. 

• Stress depletes mental energy: Willpower relies on the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which controls decision-making and self-discipline. Chronic stress drains this mental energy, leaving you less capable of resisting temptations. This is why people often turn to comfort foods, procrastinate, or engage in other unhealthy habits when feeling overwhelmed—they lack the mental energy to make better choices.
  • Ughhh, okay, I’ve been feeling this one so much in my life the past 8 months. We’ve been really busy at work (a good problem but still stressful at times) and I can tell by the end of the day I’m snacking more, eating more treats, and so on and I think it’s a combination of work stress depleting my willpower and bad habits that I’ve formed. So far my easy fix is just not having much of that snacky, sugary stuff in the house….until Halloween in a few days.   
• Willpower as a muscle: Just like physical muscles, willpower strengthens with use and weakens with overexertion. Small successes act like light exercise for the brain, allowing it to grow stronger gradually. Every time you successfully resist a small temptation or follow through on a minor commitment, you are “working out” your willpower muscle, making it easier to handle bigger challenges later on.
  • Try this challenge, put a piece of chocolate (or a favorite treat) on your desk and force yourself however you can to not eat it for xx amount of days. Over time, hopefully the temptation isn’t as strong because you’re building your willpower muscle. 

What Can You Do NOW…Easily??

Besides the few action items I mentioned above, here are some other ones to implement or think about:

• Focus on long-term, sustainable eating habits rather than short-term diets. It’s about making choices that fit your lifestyle and can be maintained over time.
• When starting a new habit, remember to have some self-compassion or you may just end up in a worse place:
  • It’s not always a good thing to be an “all or nothing” mindset. You are going to have slipups and being aware of that now is a good thing. Hopefully it wont’ give you permission to go break commitments to yourself, but it’s important to have grace when you do have slipups so that you don’t completely bag the entire food challenge/diet/etc.
    • For instance, if you break a diet and eat a cookie, thinking “I’ve ruined my diet, so I might as well eat more,” is not the right action. One cookie is okay if it ended up happening, but stop yourself there!
• Be aware of your actual needs:
  • Coach Ben Bergeron shared a story of how he got into this habit of having a post dinner meal before bed. Then he realized this was not needed or good for him so he tried stopping it. Every night his stomach would GROWL out of hunger but he knew there was no way he was actually hungry as he’d just had dinner an hour prior. His body had become so used to that snack it was reacting to this bad habit not being fulfilled. So, when his stomach growled he changed the reaction by doing some exercises, like 10 pushups or 15 burpees. Slowly his stomach stopped growling and stopped expecting it’s post dinner snack.
    • Be aware of what habits you have in place.
    • Be aware of what your body truly needs.
    • Be aware of what you could change to make things better (go for a walk next time you find yourself wanting to snack, eat carrots instead of chips, etc.).    
• Meal Prep for the week:
  • Sit down once during the week to map out what you are going to eat every meal for every day for a week. Then get the groceries and spend one day prepping as much as you can so it’s ready ahead of time. Think: make the entire meal and freeze it, just cut the veggies, thaw the meat…and so on, what can you do to make your life easier when you have less time?
    • Have an ongoing list of groceries on your phone somewhere so you know what you’re out of in the house. I also keep a few of my favorite recipes’ ingredients on this list so if I make it to the store and didn’t plan out our meals for the week, I can still get enough groceries to last for a few nights’ dinners. 
• Not sure what to make this week:
  • Ask Chat GPT for ideas
• Not sure what to make today:
  • Give Chat GPT the ingredients in your fridge and ask it to make you a recipe
• Remember, simple changes can go a long way:
  • Want to eat more eggs for breakfast but always in a hurry in the mornings? Make delicious egg casseroles or egg muffins ahead of time. Hit me up for some of my favorite recipes!  
  • Find yourself snacking too much? Get rid of any unhealthy snacks-this one I use all the time and I sure get sad when I have nothing yummy to snack on but eventually, I get over being mad at myself and move on with my day
• Hire It Out:
  • I know a great lady (in the Treasure Valley) who will come to your house with all the groceries and make up the meals for you and your family and stock your fridge. Message me for her information.
  • Check out meals from sources like Paleo Power Meals or ready-made healthy meals shipped to your door.
  • Love to cook but never have the time? Well, think about what you can outsource in your life to get the time back? Hire someone to do your laundry or clean your house or walk the dog so you can focus on cooking.

I hope that these tips and tricks have created more solutions and less confusion when it comes to the EAT bucket of the five factors of health and your journey to the “fitness” side of the health/wellness spectrum we’ve been talking about. I’m always looking for ways to improve this area of my life, so please, share with me your tips, your favorite recipes, and more!

Here’s to healthy eating and an occasional treat (like Jackson getting to have the best popsicle EVER in NYC this summer :)),
-Kelli