Dry shampoo. Target drive-up ordering. Listening to a podcast at 1.5x speed. Car washes. Two-day shipping. Order ahead apps. We all appreciate a short cut, don’t we?
I know you moms out there feel me on this…. We love to be productive and as efficient as possible to get as many things done as we possibly can in the shortest amount of time. And there is nothing wrong with that! But when it comes to your health, your weight loss, your muscle building efforts, and your fitness level, sadly there is no freaky fast delivery.
With so many quick diet fixes and fads floating around out there in the world, it’s hard not to be tempted by that pill that helps you drop 7 lbs in 7 days. Or to stick to a restrictive plan for 30 days that claims you will feel so much better and have the shiniest hair you’ve ever had. Or do that juice cleanse to lose 8 pounds of bloat.
Those advertisements can really draw you in. You think to yourself “if only I could drop these last 10 lbs” or “I can do anything for 7 days”, or “I was so bad over the holidays so now I’m gonna make myself eat healthy next month”. No, no and no. Stop those thoughts right now. Anything with a deadline or end date on it will not work for you long term.
Research shows that most people will not stick to a diet plan longer than 6 months and that the more restrictive the plan, the shorter duration. We also know that most New Year’s resolutions are broken before the end of January, probably because the measures are too extreme.
I spent a whole heck of a lot of time studying in college (M-I-Z!) memorizing glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, the Krebs Cycle, literally every little bit about nutrition and how it works in human physiology. I can tell you with absolute certainty that keto is not the answer to a healthy diet, healthy weight loss, or weight maintenance. Cutting dairy is not the answer either. In fact, maintaining a healthy diet and weight have nothing to do with just one thing and everything to do with your daily habits and eating your favorite foods!
Are you thinking, “yeah Hannah, but I don’t have time”? Let me tell you this. I absolutely understand the life of a busy working mom and wife. I’ve worked full time at a children’s hospital where I was often on call nights and weekends while raising three kids (also thank goodness for my husband… single moms you’re super heroes). I’ve worked part-time, and I’m currently self-employed and I can tell you that while I maybe had more available time to exercise when I was a part-time employee, it didn’t make the decision to lace up my shoes and go exercise any easier.
I want to tell you about my amazing client Meggie. She really is awesome. I knew from the start she would be successful. She was so motivated and so ready to change her life. We discussed that it would take time, but ultimately I would teach her how to eat for her body to promote gradual weight loss and build lean body mass.
As I write this blog post today, 8 months after starting with Meggie, she has lost over 50 lbs! The amount of clarity she has gained, tears we’ve shed together as she broke through so many mental barriers, the way she feels, and her confidence have been so worth it for her. She could have stopped at any time and said “forget this, this sucks” but she didn’t. She had weeks where the scale went up. She had weeks where she didn’t get the exercise that she wanted to and weeks where she was home with sick kids. But she also had weeks where she watched the scale change and weeks where she started noticing muscle definition in her arms, and how suddenly her pants were no longer fitting.
And I can tell you, she wasn’t successful because of all the free time. She works full-time, she has 3 kids and a husband, and she’s active in small groups, her kids sports, along with several other commitments. She has been on vacations, she has celebrated holidays, she has had insanely busy weeks at work, and through all the highs and all the lows, she is living her best life. Her success has had nothing to do with having the time. Instead it has everything to do with her making the time and making good choices 90% of the time.
Think about your own life. Are you struggling to eat healthy and exercise your body? Do you find yourself saying you have no time? We’re so quick to use that excuse because it feels legit. But is it a time problem or a priority problem? I don’t mean to sound harsh. I do know there are periods of time in life when you feel stretched thin so maybe it isn’t a priority. When my girls were babies, it was not a priority for me to exercise every day. If I could keep the three tiny humans alive and get in 2 or 3 days a week of some sort of activity, I was happy!
Sometimes you do have to get creative in order to make healthy eating and exercise a part of your daily routine. Here are my top suggestions for helping to make that happen!
- Schedule it. If you put it on your calendar, you are far more likely to stick to it. This goes for exercise and planning your nutrition.
- Time block your day. I know when I have a million file tabs open in my mind, I completely forget about the things I said I was going to do. I love to time block my extremely busy days so I can stay on task.
- Check in at the end of the day. What worked and what didn’t? What do you need to do tomorrow to ensure you’re able to feel good about the day?
My challenge for you is to pick one area to focus on and start there. Maybe you want to exercise more. Start by writing it on your calendar and start small like 10 minutes each day. Before you know it, it will be a new habit! Then you can move onto another area, rinse, and repeat!
