Episode 12
[00:00:00] Welcome to The Be About Being Better podcast, where we help people make evidence based sustainable. Small changes for their health that compounded the huge shifts towards a better, more vibrant life. I'm your host Ace, a health and life coach, future registered dietician, a master's graduate from Columbia University, and a certified intuitive eating counselor.
And I believe that we can't make lasting or meaningful change single handedly. So I'm so happy that you're here so that together you can see that a diet free, sustainable lifestyle is possible, and you can leverage that to live a better life. And remember my disclaimer, This podcast is meant to give you general information.
And it's not meant to substitute or replace medical advice, a diagnosis or serve as treatment.[00:01:00] Hello. Hello. Welcome back to the Be About Being Better Podcasts, y'all. I'm really trying not to freak out, but I'm very upset right now. I went to go get my haircut recently and I have been to the salon before in Nashville. and I had the best haircut of my life. When I went to them in August. I went to the owner.
It was fabulous. Like I even posted about it on my Instagram story. I had never gotten so many dms back about something and everyone was like, Oh my, your hair looks amazing. Like definitely get it done like that again. Like it was great. She curled it. It was a little edgier than what I normally, like.
Whenever I curl my hair, I normally keep the curls very, just like in like not a hair out of place curls very. Just looking, I don't wanna say, I feel [00:02:00] cohesive is not the right word, but just looking very put together. Normally when I curl my hair, but the way that this woman did my hair back in August, oh my God, was fabulous.
I felt like it was a little edgier, like when she curled my hair, she left the ends straight. So it was just curl to then little straight at the end. Some parts she left kind of wavy. I don't know. It just looked so good and clearly y'all follow me on my Instagram story thought so too. So I went back to the salon for another routine haircut and I went to a different woman because the owner wasn't available first mistake.
And I told her, I was like, Hey, the owner did my hair it, you know, this way. And I kind of described it to her. Unfortunately, I just like didn't have a picture at the time. I said, This is what I would like it to look like. And she's like, Oh yeah, okay. Blah, blah, blah. And then, um, she was like, Yo, like your hair's really short, like you should consider [00:03:00] extensions.
I kid you not, this woman was pitching me these hair extensions for like 45 minutes. And at the end of the hair, so she blew out my hair and she blew it out straight.
And I thought then, okay, so she blew it out straight and then was gonna use the curling iron to curl it? No, she was like, Okay, that's it. I'm like, What? And I also asked her for a dusting. Like I did not want her to cut anything off. She took off like over two inches. I asked her for a dusting. She took off over two inches.
My hair is so short now anyway, uh, I'm trying not to get upset about it, but if you know a salon in Nashville, if you have friends in Nashville that have suggestions, like please send me a DM on Instagram.
I am on the hunt. Um, because my hair is so short right now and. I don't know. I'm trying to embrace it. I think it's kind of cute. It's not like a pixie look like it's something longer than that, but like it's, it's giving [00:04:00] Tinkerbell so I'm trying to embrace it, but, um, it's a little difficult. So if you could help me find a new salon, that would be great.
Also, if you have suggestions on what you do to make your hair grow longer or faster. That would be amazing. Like I've heard Bio 10 is good, but when I took a Bio 10 supplement, which I'm very wary about supplements, I did this like back in high school, um, I had a really bad reaction to it. So now I do those like sugar bear gummies just cause I like having a gummy vitamin
But I know that they are a horrible for you and just, they probably are laced with heavy metals, like supplements are just so sketchy. But I don't know. I just like them and they're my favorite color. I love light blue. So if anyone has any suggestions for how to make your hair grow longer and faster, let me know.
And I will definitely share to my Instagram story for people that are wondering. Cause I'm sure there's so many girlies out there that are trying to grow their hair out. But I can't be the only one that struggles with this. No, it's so frustrating. Anywho, to [00:05:00] get into our topic for today, we are gonna be talking about healthy holiday tips, and I have a couple questions that I've gotten from y'all about how to survive the holidays. So we're gonna kind of go through three different scenarios, three different questions from y'all and um, and I'll help answer them so that you can have more peace of mind and a healthier holiday season.
because I think this is a time of year where people do just kinda say, Oh, I'll just start again in the next year. Just like when we say, Oh, I'll just start again on Monday. But then we go through, like right now it's November. A lot of people will go like two months or several weeks of just feeling blah engrossed and bloated and tired and guilty for what they're eating and out of their routine.
There's a way to go through the holiday season and fully enjoy the food and the drinks that [00:06:00] you're gonna have without feeling gross, bloated, or out of control. There are ways to do it where you don't, You can still travel. and be in a different place. Be around family members that you don't see all the time and not feel totally out of your routine.
There are ways to do, and we're gonna talk about some tips today, and I think it's important to try and incorporate some of these things because if you have felt ugh during the holiday seasons in the past, just know that you could have a different fate this year with implementing some of these things.
The first question that I got from y'all, you know, we, we got several different ones, but I picked out three different scenarios from y'all that, that I think could cover all of the points that I would like to hit as far as tips for you all. So the first scenario that we have, first question is, I. and the holidays feeling so gross and bloated and so tired, and I hate going into the new year feeling this way.
So how do I feel more [00:07:00] energized and less blah during the holiday season? So my question to you is, if you already know that you feel blah, you feel gross, you feel bloated, how do you want to feel? How do you want to feel starting the new year? At the time of this recording, it's gonna be 2023 next year.
How do you, in an ideal world, in an ideal scenario, how would you like to feel starting the new year? I'm sure you wanna feel energized. I'm sure you wanna feel more confident. I'm sure you wanna feel rested and productive and happy. I'm sure you wanna cultivate a lot of these other emotions, and there's probably some that I didn't name that you want to cultivate, but name those for.
Put those down on paper and then you wanna start to reverse engineer, What can I tangibly do over these next six to eight weeks over the holidays to actually [00:08:00] generate those feelings and what was I doing or not doing in years past that led me to feel gross, bloated, blah. Things like that. A lot of people, it's drinking too much alcohol.
It's not that you can't have alcohol, but some people just have too much or have alcohol too many days in a row, uh, or they're missing sleep. They're not staying hydrated, not having vegetables for several days, not eating breakfast, not eating regularly, shaming themselves for what they are eating when they are trying to enjoy, uh, more calorically dense meal or fun treat or a seasonal thing.
So, You wanna start to think, Okay, how do I wanna feel? And then work to reverse engineer that. What can I do to cultivate some of those feelings? And that can give you an idea of what to loop into your routine or goals that you want to set. Yes, [00:09:00] ultimately we're setting intentions for these feelings.
Those feelings aren't behaviors. So we wanna set goals around tangible behaviors. So what is actually going to generate those feelings? So if you wanna feel more confident walking into the new year, number one, listen to the confidence episode that we did recently. Do these things to build confidence.
Definitely listen to that episode, but also, Think about, okay, what can I do on a daily basis that would allow me to feel more confident? Is it listening to more podcasts? Is it journaling more? Is it advocating for myself? Is it meditating? Is it going to the gym? Lifting weights? What is that for you? And then set goals around those things.
So if it's exercising for you, that makes you feel confident and empowered and set goes, Okay, I'm gonna make sure that even when I'm traveling, I'm going to work out or lift. Two times a week, and that might be really realistic for and easy for you to [00:10:00] follow through on throughout the holiday season. That can allow you to feel more empowered and more confident so that by the end of the year you have done things to reverse engineer how you wanna feel.
Okay. The next question that I got from y'all, uh, the next scenario is, I'm so good with my routines when I'm at my apartment, but as soon as I go home, it's like a switch goes off and I can't sustain a routine. I don't know what it is about being at home, but for whatever reason, I can't sustain a routine there.
What do I do? Well, the first thing that I'd recommend is going straight to our main character Morning Routines podcast episode, and that has been our most popular episode so far. and I'm not, I'm not surprised because that is something that can help every single person and help you all year long. And if you don't already have an established morning routine, it sounds like this person in this scenario does.
But if you're listening to this right now and you don't have a morning routine that's established in a [00:11:00] morning routine that makes you feel like the main character, then start with the main character Morning Routines podcast episode, cuz that will give you the framework. Be about being better framework for developing a morning routine that you love.
Now, in this scenario, it sounds like the person already has an established routine, so that's good. So you know what works for you when the situation is perfect. Or in your control, maybe not perfect, but more in your control. And it sounds like that when you're home, like you said, it's like a switch goes off and you're not able to keep up with your routine in the same way.
Or maybe you don't have the same level of motivation. There might be some other things there. Um, your family might be on a different schedule or sometimes when we're home we just kind of revert back to old ways. So maybe when you were living at, I mean, I'm just kind of assuming here, but maybe when you were living at home, you didn't have an established routine, and it wasn't until you got your own apartment that you did establish your routine. So you're kind of reverting back to old ways where you weren't as [00:12:00] consistent with healthy habits. You didn't have a routine. Maybe you did sleep in more, you did snooze more, you did stay up late.
So you're kind of reverting back to those old ways when you go home. That's what I would assume from the context of that, but I obviously, Um, I know that, that I've been there, so it's a lot easier to maintain a routine in those situations where we tend to revert back to old ways or we don't have as much control over our routine when we already have an established routine.
So make sure to go to main Character Morning Routines episode, Establish your routine, because once you have that baseline for yourself, then you can modify it ,and the way that you modify, especially during the holidays is you ask yourself, what is the most effective thing in my morning routine? And what do I enjoy the most?
So for you, it might be movement in the morning, it might be journaling, it might be meditating, it might be listening to a podcast, might be listening to music, [00:13:00] might be doing your makeup and actually getting dressed. So many things that could be involved in your morning routine, but maybe pick one or two.
That are the most effective that you could actually see yourself doing while at home, while in a different routine and in a different scenario, because it's not gonna be realistic for you to do everything that you would normally do in your normal routine. And it sounds like in this scenario, that person's not doing it at all.
So know that something is better than nothing. And also know that even if you just do one or two things out of your normal routine, that's gonna make you feel so much more grounded and put together, and like you're keeping some sort of routine, kind of continuing the behaviors in some way, like that's gonna make such a difference during the holiday season because the holiday season is so much about others and giving, and, just other people and family members and compromising and kind of putting yourself on the back burner. So [00:14:00] if you could do something especially early on in the day, like right in the morning, if you could do that, like something for yourself that's gonna allow you to feel better about giving so much of your time, energy, and attention to other people.
Throughout the rest of the day and the rest of the holiday season. So it's important to, you know, give yourself that time and that self care, but release the pressure to do everything for your morning routine. It's not gonna look exactly the same as when you're in full control of your own apartment. So just pick one or two things that you think are the most effective out of your morning routine.
Extract those and keep up with those, and then ask yourself, How can I make those things easier to follow through on? So if it's movements, how could you just do a workout from your bedroom? or could you loop some family members in, Get your family members in on your goals? If you loop your family members in, you set that boundary, like, Hey, I'm gonna be following through on my routines, but they can also help hold you accountable too. So say if you wanna exercise, you could say, Hey, I'm [00:15:00] working out tomorrow.
Give me my space. Or just say, Hey, this is what I'm gonna be doing. Like it or not, this is, this is what I'm gonna be doing and I need to keep up with this to keep me sane. Um, but you can also loop your family. But hey, let, let's go to a workout class. Let's go for a walk around the block. Let's do an at home workout together, so you can loop that in.
That's great for, you know, looping other people into your routine. It will help you stay consistent, but also help you feel like you can bond with your family. I like something I've talked about with clients before, is that they struggle with going to bed. and sticking with their evening routine when they're at home.
Morning routine for people it can be a little bit easier, but evening routine cuz they wanna stay up with their family and watch a show and everyone just has a different evening routine. Or sometimes when they're home with their families, they eat later than they normally do or eat earlier than they normally do and they just feel a little off.
So the evening routine can actually be more of an issue for, for some people. So I think advocating for [00:16:00] yourself and letting your family know your routine can be really helpful can help not soften the blow. It's okay, I'm still gonna do my routine, but we're also having quality time together.
You don't have to.
Okay, so for our last scenario, um, one of y'all said, I just can't stop eating. I know that I should stop. I, but I always feel this urge to finish my plate, even though I know it'll make me feel gross after. How do I control my eating during the holidays? So my first tip would. To release the control because you trying to force it and trying to control your eating is making it harder and almost adding to the stress and anxiety that you're having around food.
So we, we can't control it cuz the more that we do try and impose control and enforce restriction rules, the more likely we are to, [00:17:00] to overdo it. And the more likely we are to deviate from that plan because we're relying on willpower and discipline to follow through on food rules or whatever it is we're setting.
So we wanna get away and kind of release some of those rules, release the pressure, and that will help us to be more in touch with our fullness cues and to stop eating because we know, okay, if we're still hungry, we can keep eating. But if we're full, we're we can allow ourselves to have that food later or tomorrow.
It's, a lot of people feel the need, especially during the holidays, to eat everything they can because they're not going to allow themselves to have that food again at some point. So if we release the control, release the restriction, that will minimize the binges. That will minimize the overeating. The other thing is if you [00:18:00] are a fellow member of the Clean Plate Club, where you feel the urge to eat everything on your plate, this is such a difficult thing.
And I have been in this club for so many years and it's, it's really hard. Um, you have to start framing this differently. A lot of people won't leave any food on the plate, you know? But part of it's habitual. Part of it's like they don't want any food waste. But think about it, if you have couple bites left and you don't wanna throw that out, cuz you don't want food waste.
If you didn't eat it, where would it go? It would go in the trash can, right? Unless you're composting. But most likely it would go in the trash. So if you are in the Clean Plate Club and you are forcing yourself to eat those few bites because you don't wanna put it in the trash can, what does that make your body, You are making your body the dumping ground for all of that extra [00:19:00] food.
You are treating your body like a garbage can and. that's not okay. Clearly it's not sitting with you Well, because you're not, you're not feeling great about it, and you're feeling out of control with food and, and you, I just get the vibe from this submission that you don't want to keep eating this way.
You know that you wanna start healing your relationship with food and approach things differently this holiday season. And it comes from making the mindset shift that. See your body as more than a garbage can, as more than a dumping ground. You value your body. You see it as a temple.
You're not going to put that excess waste in there. And it is okay to put a couple pieces of extra food in the garbage can, and maybe if you are really concerned about the food waste, maybe there are opportunities to meal plan meal. Prepare your plate better or differently in the future. instead of seeing it as a failure [00:20:00] for, you know, wastings of food, use that as feedbacks that you could have, make a smaller portion next time, or you could fill up your plate differently or you could order differently or save some for leftovers or split an entree with someone or maybe that would inspire you to start compos.
So, I don't know. There are so many different options. Um, but if you are part of the Clean Plate Club and you were eating past the point of fullness, because habitually you have been programmed to finish your plate, we, we gotta break that a little bit. So maybe this holiday season, you just start with leaving one extra bite on your plate and not finishing everything.
Maybe it's just a crumb. Maybe it's just one bite. Maybe it's a couple. Ease into it. Start just getting comfortable with leaving a little bit on your plate. And that can help to break this cycle over time. Cause I know some people [00:21:00] really have this program deep and this was me and it took me a while to get out of it.
And I end up now not having a lot of food waste and a lot of food on my plate because I'm listening to my hunger cues. But I also have started to meal plan and prep like, I know my portion sizes, so I, you know, know about how much now I can handle at one sitting. But it makes it hard cuz during the holidays you're not always meal prepping and meal planning for yourself.
Sometimes other people are having food or you're going out to dinner more. So there, there are more variables and, and that's understandable. So if you really struggle with this, I would first encourage you to make the mindset shift that your body is so much more than a trash can, and I want you to start working on loving and respecting your body more, and not using your body as a dumping ground for that extra food and starting to leave couple crumbs, one by two, by on your plate to start [00:22:00] getting more comfortable.
Not having your plate be totally clear. That can be really helpful for some people. And if we're doing that, we're letting go of the restrictions. Another eating tip is to eat regularly, so this is the week before Thanksgiving. Next week is Thanksgiving. I would encourage you all to eat breakfast on Thanksgiving.
So many people wait till that big meal to eat something and. like we're getting to that huge meal so ravenous, it is impossible to be fully in touch with your body's hunger and fullness cues if you're showing up to a meal completely ravenous. So it's so important that you eat breakfast before it's not going to ruin the meal.
I, I, you know, I hate when parents say, Oh, don't eat that cuz you're gonna ruin your meal. No, it's actually gonna allow you to savor your. because you're not gonna be thinking about how ravenous you are in eating so fast, you're actually gonna be able to eat [00:23:00] slower and savor your meal and not overeat. So don't you actually feel like your meal is ruined when you end the meal and you're like in a food coma and your stomach hurts and you're just so bloated and you feel, ugh, gross, Like, and you know that you overate.
Like, I feel like that's worse. I guess that's not a failure because it's all feedback, right? But I feel like that is worse than you eating a protein bar or a couple scrambled eggs before your Thanksgiving dinner. Like, that's not going to ruin your meal. That's actually gonna allow you to have a balance of blood sugar so that you go into that meal, not totally ravenous, so you're actually able to fully enjoy that meal and not eat past the point of fullness and be fully in touch with your body's hunger and fullness.
So eating regularly will help you throughout the holiday season and allow you to keep a level head around your food choices. If you have a balanced blood sugar and you're eating regularly, you just [00:24:00] tend to think clearly. Cause your, your body, you know, has the energy that it needs. Um, but you're not showing up to those meals completely, Raven.
It's like, well, we're a ravenous, we. We're, we're not thinking about anything else other than food, so it's definitely important to eat regularly throughout the holidays and definitely, definitely, definitely have breakfast before your Thanksgiving dinner.
Another thing that I would recommend, If you are someone that doesn't eat super well during the holidays, but you want to eat more nutrient dense, fill up your plate differently, start to break up your plate, almost like a piece sign where maybe a third of your plate, some carbohydrates, maybe that's where you have stuffing, that's where you have mashed potatoes.
A third of your plate is protein. Pack that with Turkey, and then a third of your plate, uh, is some sort of vegetable. So try and break up your plate that way, and that can be helpful for having, just trying to be, bring more attention to portion sizes and creating more room for [00:25:00] vegetables, more fiber, more vitamins and minerals in your, in, in your meal throughout the holiday season, not just for Thanksgiving, but throughout the holiday season.
That can be helpful to, you know, fully enjoy. The fun carbohydrates that we want. Stuffing mashed potatoes. The things are staples during, during the holiday season. Breaking up your plate this way can help to make room for more nutrient dense things while still enjoying those fun more calorically dense items in the carbohydrates.
If you were at a buffet, maybe you're not going to a restaurant that has a buffet, but you're at a potluck or you are at some sort of house party that has food all lined up and you have your plate and you're kind of looking through the, the items that are there, making your own plate. What I would recommend is looking at what's offered, seeing all of the options beforehand and.[00:26:00]
Walking away, it makes some excuse like, Oh, I gotta answer a phone call. Or, Oh, I gotta go to the bathroom. Oh, I gotta fix my hair. Or, Oh, let me go grab a glass of water or like step away and have a quiet moment with yourself and ask yourself at that point, Okay, what did I see on that buffet table that I really want?
And what am I excited about eating? And you might think to yourself, Okay, I want a little bit of everything, or, Oh, I really wanna double down on the mashed potatoes, or I really want, you know, XYZ thing, or grandma's pumpkin pie, or whatever it is. You might have a couple items like, Oh, I really wanna, that sticks out to me.
I really want the mac and cheese. Like, those are the things you maybe double down on the things that you're really excited about eating and then you can, the next time that you approach the buffet, this is now your second time. You can go in with a clear head. You already kind of know what you want. You have, you've seen the options there.
You know what's, what's really, you know, worth it to you, what you're excited about [00:27:00] eating, and then you can build your plate from there. That can help you to just make more intentional choices during, during the holiday season when there are so many different options. We're overwhelmed by the amount of food options.
But going in with a little bit more intention, taking that breather to think about and review what's there and what do I actually want, what looks good that can, you know, really make things easier for you and help you build your plate smarter so that you're not getting to the end of that meal. And well, you still might get to the end of the meal and be like, Oh my God, I, my eyes were still bigger than my stomach and I can't finish all this food.
In that case, I don't want you to overeat and keep eating just to finish your plate. This method of looking at the buffet stepping away, then going back with more intention might help mitigate, grabbing too much food that then you feel obligated to eat or you feel guilty about wasting if you have to throw it away.
So I could just help you to bring more [00:28:00] intention to your meals. And my, My last tip is if you feel out of control with food, Especially during the holiday season. This is not a holiday season issue. This is a year round issue. You need to start giving yourself these treats, these fun meals, these calorically dense meals or desserts.
More often cuz there might be a part of you that's saying, Oh, I have to double down on this now cause I don't know when I'm gonna allow myself to have it again. Or I won't be able to have this for another year when my family makes this. You wanna start giving yourself permission to eat these things year round or something equivalent.
Like sometimes we just have grandma's pie around Thanksgiving, but we have other opportunities year round to to, to eat this way and have more indulgent items. And if you give yourself permission to eat these things regularly, you won't feel the [00:29:00] need to double down on everything during the holiday season because you know, okay, I don't need to have all this now because I can have this tomorrow.
I can have this next month, I can have this in June. Christmas in July. So that can be really helpful too, is if you are working on your relationship with food and releasing restrictions all year round and not putting so much pressure to like fix everything or be perfect during the holiday season, or totally letting yourself go.
Cuz we know from this first scenario, a lot of us are doing that and then getting to the new year feeling gross, bloated, sluggish, just overall blah. So I hope that this was helpful. If you have any other questions about the holiday season, definitely send me a dm. We can always do like a bonus episode. I can answer more questions or your scenarios for the holiday season.
I love helping people have a healthier holiday season cuz I know that this is possible for you. So thank you so much for listening today. Wishing you a happy holidays and I will see you in the next episode.
[00:30:00] Hey y'all. Thanks again for listening to the View about Being Better podcast. I so appreciate you. If this episode made you laugh, smile, think about yourself or your life differently, in any way, making your life better, I empower you to share the show with three people who just like you, need to hear this message and have this type of transformation in their lives.
I personally read all the reviews the show and see the Instagram story shares. It honestly gives me so much joy to see that our mission is making people's lives better, and the reviews really do help in increasing our impact. So thank you so much for taking the time to do that. If you need personalized support with anything discussed in today's episode or need help creating a sustainable diet free lifestyle, take my quiz.
It's Linked Flow in the show notes, and that quiz will help you see which one of our coaching programs is right for you. Thank you so much again for listening [00:31:00] and hears to being about being better.
