There’s a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation about food and metabolism. Every couple of months I want to devote an episode to misunderstandings about fat, misunderstandings about protein and misunderstandings about carbohydrates.
In today’s episode, we are tackling some major misunderstandings about carbs and blood sugar. We’ll also talk about specific changes you can make to improve your carbohydrate choices without drastic dieting choices and cutting out carbs.
So much wisdom coming from my Masters Club this morning! I logged in to our group this morning, like I always do and there was a clear theme coming through…
We spend so much time thinking and not nearly enough doing. We’re thinking about what we did wrong, what we should have done differently, what we didn’t do and what we can do tomorrow to make up for it all. All of that thinking generates a lot of emotion & tension.
Action, however, saves energy & creates peace. Plus, it moves you forward towards your goals while generating motivation and momentum.
Here’s what 3 different clients in my Masters Club have posted in the last 24 hours:
Bogged down in the thinking for way too long and then realized I could be DONE with one of the items if I had just been doing it instead of over analyzing the choice. I think I was trying to ‘pause’ but on a task that didn’t require pausing. I realized that I get bogged down in making the perfect choice on things that don’t really matter as a means of avoiding thinking about and making decision on what does. Definitely reaffirmed my goal of getting the baseline systems in place, get the mundane automated if not actually than practically.
As I said a few times to them this week: the magic is in the mundane!
And another:
Action is calming, over thinking is not. It seems the less tightly I hold onto the outcome, the more open my eyes, heart and mind become. This is a giant shift from my very calculated and very controlled planning self.
Action is calming, over thinking is not. So good. When we find ourselves caught in the thinking, how can we move from thinking to doing?
Last one:
The tough part of the journaling was how to manifest it when I feel in a slump. I kept circling back to action. Calm action. Either the action itself brings me joy and excitement (a road trip to the river with a friend) or the end result of the action brings me joy (the feeling of having a really clean house). Calm action as a bounceback strategy.
I keep repeating the words calm action in my journal. Over and over, I see it appear in my entries. Calm. Action. One thing at a time. Make the next move. Don’t worry about the one after that. Create joy with action. Stay calm. Take action. Be a tsunami of joy.
I feel like there’s so more I haven’t journaled about when it comes to joy. I’m cracking my world wide open. There’s so much joy and excitement coming my way that I haven’t even imagined yet, and action gets me farther down that path.
Wisdom, right? This is why I freakin’ adore the Masters Club.
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I took today off from the gym today, which I rarely do during the week but here’s why: due to my knee injury, I’ve been doing much more upper body training – strict press, push-ups, pull-ups. Upper body typically doesn’t recover as quickly as lower body and my upper body volume has been much higher than normal. I was feeling very sore (good sore) this morning and since I’m not traveling this weekend, I can get to the gym tomorrow (Saturday). So, Friday is an active rest day and I’ll get in a solid workout tomorrow.
On the food front:
Two things are making today’s food choices a bit different from normal. First, I’m not working out today so I’ll stay away from any starch. You won’t see sweet potatoes in my diet on a day that I’m not training. Second, I’m heading up to Maine with my mom & sister this afternoon so I’ll be sitting in the car for much of the afternoon & evening. Lots of time on my butt, less of a need for fuel.
This morning is all about the work hustle. I had a huge plate of cooked shredded cabbage this morning (sautéed with ghee & coconut aminos) and 2 eggs.
I had a couple ounces of macadamia nuts on the car ride along with coffee. All the coffee today.
I’m writing this before I head out so my guess is that I’ll have dinner with my mom & sister and it will be my largest meal of the day – starch free, focusing on protein, fat & veggies. Maybe a burger without the bun and a side salad or a piece of salmon and some veggies.
I hope you have a great weekend and remember: action creates peace! Consciously redirect yourself from thought to action.
We all have those days when we feel frustrated. Maybe we had a setback or we aren’t seeing the results we think we should. How do you react to frustration?
You expected to lose weight but you didn’t. How do you react?
You thought you’d crush the workout and you struggled the whole way through. How do you react?
You planned to eat clean and you overindulged instead. How do you react?
You’re stuck in traffic. How do you react?
You can choose a reaction that accelerates or decelerates your progress. Which do you choose?
How you react in moments of frustration determines the trajectory of your progress and represents a huge opportunity for improvement for most of us.
For most of my life, if the scale didn’t show the weight loss I thought it would, I’d throw my hands in the air and spend the rest of the day, weekend or week overeating. I’d have a big ‘ol pity party that was completely counterproductive.
No wonder I didn’t make much progress.
If I thought I’d crush a workout and instead found myself struggling to complete each rep, I’d leave the gym pouting and wondering why I even try. I’d sell myself this story about how it’s not even worth it, I’m just a loser and I might as well eat ice cream & Mexican food.
See the trend?
How we respond to frustration is a MASSIVE opportunity for most of us to improve.
These days, I use moments of frustration as an opportunity to get more focused.
My internal dialogue goes something like this: “Let’s focus. What does my best effort look like today? How can I work more efficiently or apply more discipline? What can I do?”
I have these opportunities to redirect every single day.
I get frustrated with my body. I get frustrated with my work. I get frustrated with relationships.
In those moments, you can go one of two ways: you can narrow your focus and move with more determination towards your goals or you can get dramatic & emotional and move further from them.
How we react to frustration is a huge opportunity for improvement. How can you improve your reaction to frustration?
Today’s workout totally smoked me in the best way!
27-21-15-9
KB swings
Heavy med ball slam
30 cal airdyne bike after each round
It took me a good long while to catch my breath after that one! Then I worked on my kip swing technique for a bit before heading to the chiropractor.
On the food front:
I had a big breakfast this morning: scrambled eggs with broccoli and leftover salmon from last night. So good! I enjoyed it after my workout and it made me smile. I love good food!
I took a bag of beet chips and some grilled chicken with me on my errands this afternoon and had more salmon and cauli rice for dinner when I got home.
Make today a great day & practice those responses to frustration!
What do you do when you don’t feel like doing the work?
I am all for indulging when it makes sense, but I also know that continuously justifying indulgences & overeating can keep you from your goals and be a huge source of frustration.
In today’s episode I’m sharing a few of my own personal strategies for overcoming that desire to throw in the towel or turn away from my goals.
If you feel like you need a better way to respond to temptation, stress, or simply the way you talk yourself into over-indulging, today’s episode is for you!
I bought a scale yesterday. I used to weigh myself daily but I haven’t had a scale in a couple of years.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, click here.
Back when my “forever fat loss” journey began, I weighed myself every day.
I kept a spreadsheet with my weight and once a week I’d take a picture of myself to see how my body was changing beyond the scale.
It worked for me. Beginning at close to 350 lbs, my fat loss was absolutely going to be reflected on the scale in terms of pounds. It was a great accountability tool for me.
However, once I dropped below 200 lbs, it stopped being such a valuable tool. Or maybe more accurately, I didn’t have the right mindset for it to be a valuable tool at that time.
I was leaner than I had ever been and I was working out more intensely than ever. The weight loss wasn’t as predictable and even though my body was changing, I was frustrated with the scale.
So, I ditched it.
(I think that’s the way most strategies work. They’re helpful for a while, they’re not so helpful for a while and maybe they’ll become helpful down the road. The key is to pay attention to what is working for you, what is not & what you can do about it.)
Since then, I’ve monitored my body progress through measurements and observation. I touch and look at my body on the daily and I know where to look for signs that I’m not moving in the right direction (my lower abdominals, my back).
My decision to buy a scale and start weighing myself again was based on two things:
how much I’ve learned from monitoring my hunger
practice in perspective and mindset
It’s not because I see the scale as a valuable indicator of fat loss: I don’t.
Let me explain the hunger thing. Paying attention to my hunger signals has been one of the most enlightening experiences of my entire fat loss & health journey.
For most of my life, the first sign of hunger was a trigger to eat and eat now. “Oh! I’m hungry! Time for a snack.”
I didn’t realize that hunger is a spectrum and that not all sensations of hunger mean I need to eat.
I’ve learned that my hunger ebbs and flows. I’ve learned that sometimes hunger is saying “don’t eat” as much as sometimes it’s saying “eat!“.
Let me give an example:
Dinner was at 6. It satisfied me. But, when laying on the couch watching TV at 9:15, I realize I’m kinda hungry. Eat or not eat?
The process of evaluating my hunger has taught me to ask:
How hungry am I?
Given what I last ate, when I last ate & how much I last ate, does it make sense for my body to need more fuel?
Is giving my body more fuel right now the best choice? Or is not giving my body more fuel the best choice?
See, if I give my body fuel by eating, it doesn’t need to turn to stored fat for fuel. In response to hunger I basically say to my body, “Oh, no need to get fuel from stored body fat. I’ve got ya! Here’s a couple handfuls of almonds.”
Given that I had dinner at 6 and I’ve been sitting on my butt since then and I’m about to sleep, not eating in response to that hunger is probably the best choice.
Plus, I learned that my hunger almost always subsides. Even 5 minutes after feeling really hungry, I can find myself not hungry at all.
That awareness, which came directly from paying attention, taught me so much about my body and dramatically improved my choices.
I think the scale has the power to teach me similarly powerful lessons. For example, I’d love to know, objectively, what eating dairy does to my body as measured by pounds and ounces.
I’d love to know what kind of weight loss, in pounds, a fast produces for me.
I’d love to know how much water I retain during my period.
I’m on a quest to know more about my body.
Can I do this without a scale? Sure can. Can you? Absolutely. Am I suggesting you start weighing yourself? No.
I’m suggesting you do what works for you to learn more about your body. Journaling is a powerful way to do this.
The other reason I bought a scale is mindset & practice. I’m human. I can get irritated by an unexplained jump in weight and I can get excited about seeing the number go down.
I want to train myself out of these emotional attachments to the number on the scale. That will happen with practice.
I also want to have some more recent frames of reference for “normal” daily fluctuations to help give context to so many of my clients who continue to be frustrated with what are completely normal fluctuations.
And lastly: it has been, in the past, a powerful motivator for me. Another form of accountability. And I’m excited to use it again without the drama it might have created in the past.
So, that’s why I bought a scale.
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I’m so excited for a workout that I can do as written!
This is my kind of workout! My shoulders were absolutely toast after those strict presses but it felt great!
On the food front:
I feel back to my normal self after being ravenous all day yesterday.
I only had 1 cup of coffee before my workout (that’s a sign that I’m working too hard) 😉 and was very ready to eat after the workout.
I had chicken & broccoli over cauliflower rice from Paleo Power Meals and more coffee. I tried enjoy some new-to-me coconut cold brew from Trader Joes but if you follow my Instagram stories, you saw what a huge fail that was.
I took advantage of a few hours of sun (it’s been raining like crazy here) and enjoyed a cobb salad outside with extra chicken.
Dinner was super simple because I’m sure I’ll be going out to eat this weekend (and I’ll share those details over on Anchor). I whipped up cauliflower soup and a beautiful piece of salmon and I even had a small sweet potato! So freakin’ good.
Make it a great weekend, guys! I’ll see you over on Anchor!
