You might leave happy & feeling great about yourself. Or, you might leave feeling like the fattest slob to ever walk the earth.
It doesn’t depend on how well clothes fit you or the lighting in the dressing rooms.
It depends 100% on your perspective & mindset.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click here.
I used to hate shopping. No matter what my size was, I hated it. I hated the way I looked in fitting room lights. I hated seeing something that didn’t look good on me. I hated carrying something into a dressing room only to realize it doesn’t fit.
I could walk into a store feeling great about myself & my life and leave the store feeling like a smoking pile of poo.
Seriously! I could walk in feeling great about my body & my progress and leave 15 minutes later feeling terrible about my body & my progress.
My body didn’t change.
My perspective did.
Even though I’ve lost over 100 lbs, I can still walk into a fitting room feeling great and leave feeling awful. I’ll tell you though – if you had asked me when I was 350 lbs how shopping would be if I was under 200 lbs, I’d have said it would be magical. I’d have told you there would never be a problem. Never a complaint.
I would have been wrong.
It takes work to end the miserable self talk that often accompanies clothes shopping. But if you don’t do it, you’re always going to be at the mercy of clothes that run small & terrible lighting.
There is another way. I’m sure there are lots of ways, actually, including staying miserable and being that 60 year old who still comes home from shopping feeling bad about her body but I digress…
Here’s what has been a great practice for me:
I do not allow the rabbit holes of thought when I’m trying on clothes. I jus’t refuse to go there.
It fits or it doesn’t. I love it or I don’t.
That’s all.
If I start to notice “oh my gosh my arms look fat…” I turn it off.
Would I ever say “oh my gosh your arms look fat!” to my sister? Of course not.
So, I redirect. It fits or it doesn’t. I love it or I don’t.
I’m on my own side. That’s it. That’s all there is to it.
And: shopping is a freakin’ blessing. Not everyone has the means or the access to shop for new things.
But you do.
Refuse to be a victim of your circumstances.
Refuse to be complicit in your own misery!
…
Today’s workout was a legit full body workout. It felt great, as did my chiropractic adjustment afterwards! Yay for prioritizing my body!
“Criss Cross”
AMRAP 15:
60 Single Unders
15 Power Cleans
60 Single Unders
15 GHD Sit-ups
I’m really focusing on my workouts early this week because I won’t get to the gym during ASCEND Friday & Saturday!
On the food front:
After my workout I went out for a late lunch (first meal of the day) at Smashburger. I had a jalapeno burger without the bun and a salad. Both were totally delicious & it helps that I was really hungry.
Around 7pm I had a can of salmon (from Thrive Market) mixed with some Primal Kitchen Chipotle Lime Mayo (also from Thrive Market – bar far the least expensive place to get this and I go through it fast!)
Today was such a fun episode! It is part 2 of a 2 part listener Q&A episode! We had so much fun in episode 407 talking about parenting, raising healthy kids, staying engaged when you reach maintenance & vegan options for a fat loss breakfast. We also touched on inspiring others, strategies for women in menopause and my tiny house project.
Today we’re kicking off talking about fitness & exercise and then we dive into my aspirations for Primal, staying postive when life gets crazy & my advice for someone who wants a career in the health & weight loss space.
What Is Breaking Barriers
In today’s episode I mentioned that I created a list of my favorite products from Thrive Market. You can download it here.
In October 2019, our relationship with Thrive Market changed. They decided to put their marketing dollars in avenues outside of podcasting but we still think they’re a good choice if you’re looking to save money on health & personal care products.
I’m not much of a late-night eater. Fortunately, through practice, I’ve changed that pattern of behavior. I like my overnight fasting period to be as long as possible.
However, this past Saturday night I was legit hungry around 11pm.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click here.
We had gone out to lunch earlier in the day but hadn’t eaten since then. I had two drinks at a Halloween party and when we returned home, I was both a little buzzed & very hungry.
Things could have gone downhill quickly. I could have rummaged around looking for a bag of chips or suggested we order a pizza.
In my head, I went through a strategy that I do with my Fat Loss Fast Track clients. I challenge myself to define what good, better and best options would be.
Before I did that, I got really clear on the most important thing. I asked myself:
Elizabeth, what is sure to make you feel like garbage tomorrow?
The answer was clear: drinking more and/or eating a bunch of sugar & starch.
Once I identified what would make me feel awful in the AM, it felt pretty easy to avoid those choices.
From there, I moved on to thinking about my good, better & best options. (This whole internal dialogue took less than 30 seconds, by the way.)
Best was clear: go to bed. Don’t pass go, don’t get a snack, just sleep. You’re exhausted.
Better was keeping it small & fat loss friendly. Have a bite to eat, have it be aligned with your goals and then go to bed.
Good was harder to define – maybe just “don’t overdo it? Don’t eat anything you won’t feel good about tomorrow”.
We decided to make bacon & eggs.
I felt really great about that choice because though it was late, I can honestly say that I was both hungry and my body needed fuel. It was delicious, I enjoyed every bite and it wasn’t a choice I’d regret the next day.
Sometimes it just takes a little thought & intentionality.
A client emailed me today and said that when she has more than a drink or two, she inevitably ends up overeating. I call BS. She’s telling a story like she’s not in control of what she is eating when she is drinking.
Here’s how I know that’s not true: would she dance in the street naked? No. Would she rob a liquor store? No.
Why not? Because she is in control. She knows those are terrible ideas & would have disasterous consequences. She has that processing ability, which means she has the same processing ability with food. The difference is her story. Her chosen belief.
She tells herself that she has no control when she’s drinking. She does. She just needs to make sure she’s telling herself that version of the story.
Food for thought!
…
I woke up with a very stiff neck & back. Either I slept on it wrong or messed it up at the concert last night.
Either way, I opted to go to the afternoon workout instead of the morning one to give my neck some time to loosen up.
The workout looked like a challenging one – thrusters and lateral jump burpees over the bar are both intense movements!
I will tell you this: I was so glad when it was over!
On the food front:
I started the day with a whole bunch of coffee! I was out really late last night at the Imagine Dragons concert in Boston and I’m feeling it this am!
After my workout I made up my fall coffee treat but this time I left out the stevia. The coconut butter adds a great sweetness so I didn’t want it any sweeter.
Did you see my amazing football spread from Facebook yesterday? I made up another one for dinner tonight to enjoy with Monday Night Football!
Today was such a fun episode! It is part 1 of a 2 part listener Q&A episode and we kick off with a powerful question about how I’ll raise my (future) children to be healthy & health-conscious without making food a huge issue in the family.
We talk about how to inspire others, how to support others on their own health journeys, what advice I’d give to a menopausal women with 20 pounds to lose,fat loss breakfast options for vegans & much more!
Plus, I answer some personal questions about the tiny home I’m building & some other fun stuff!
In part 2 (episode 408) we’ll kick off with a bunch of questions about workout strategy, getting started with exercise & my own fitness journey. We’ll also dive into questions about mindset, procrastination and how to know if your physique goals are realistic for you body.
When possible, I don’t eat before my workouts. I do 95% of my workouts about 10-12 hours into an overnight fast.
The exception is when I’m really hungry. If I’m really hungry and feel that not eating will negatively impact my workout intensity, I’ll have a small snack that won’t impact my blood sugar. I don’t want my body using sugar to fuel my workouts; I want it using fat.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click here.
If I’m super hungry, I might have a small handful of almonds or a half packet of coconut butter.
Otherwise, I eat an early dinner (I’m almost always done eating before 7pm on weekdays) and I don’t eat again until sometime between 10am & noon.
In addition to not eating before my workout, I try not to eat within 90 minutes after my workout. Said another way, I won’t eat until at least 90 minutes after my workout ends.
We’ve learned from the body building world that getting in protein and/or carbs right after a workout is super important for muscle growth & recovery. I’ll agree that it’s important for muscle growth. Kinda.
But here’s what happens when we eat right after a workout: we blunt the catabolic process of the activity. Remember, fat loss is catabolic. It represents a break down process – breaking down body fat to fuel the body.
Exercise is also catabolic. Exercise doesn’t grow muscle tissue, it stresses it. It creates micro tears. It’s catabolic.
Eating is anabolic.
When fat loss is the goal, we want that catabolic process of a workout to run it’s course completely before switching into an anabolic state (created by eating).
For that reason, I allow at least 90 minutes following a workout before I eat. That’s my general rule.
With this wonderful fall weather, I’ve been craving more warm meals & drinks than cool. As I brought home a venti Americano after my workout today, I thought I’d mix it up and make it something yummy.
A fall coffee treat – why not?
I almost always order my coffee black. Today was no exception.
But a combination of feeling too lazy to cook and wanting a treat led me to pull out my blender for a coffee inspired “lunch”.
I poured my hot Americano into my Vitamix and then added:
I’ll be in a hotel next weekend for ASCEND & I’m totally bringing my blender to make some of this to power me through those long days!
I got most of these ingredients through Thrive Market and if you give them a try, make sure you go through the URL thrivemarket.com/primalpotential so you save an extra 25% & get free shipping on your first order plus a free 30-day trial membership!
…
I thought today’s workout would be a gimme. It looked pretty easy on paper but holy smokes it caught me by surprise! My legs were exhausted & my lungs were burning in just the 2nd round!
“Saved by the Bell”
5 Rounds:
21 Air Squats
15/10 Calorie Bike
9 Alternating Dumbbell Snatches
What a great week of workouts!
On the food front:
You guys already know what I had for brunch! I know many of you probably feel like my coffee treat isn’t much of a meal, but it’s actually a legit amount of fat. More importantly, it works for me. It probably wouldn’t have worked for a me a couple years ago, but it does now, and that’s all that matters.
I’ve worked hard over a period of years to really improve my metabolic efficiency and part of that means I’m less hungry and have longer stretches of time between my meals.
Ultimately, the only thing that matters is what works for you & makes you feel amazing. Keep in mind that as you improve the quality of fuel you give your body, change your body composition and increase your fitness, your hunger and fuel demands will also change & adjust.
For dinner I had a huge bowl of brussels sprouts with soft boiled eggs and bacon mixed in. Oh, and a little goat cheese, too!
Enjoy your weekend & have a Happy Halloween! I’m going to be Ariel from The Little Mermaid. I’m pretty pumped about my red wig!
