We’re trying something new this week and I’m SUPER excited to bring you this new medium: video!

We’re still testing the medium, technology, and overall reception of using videos in weekly blog posts, thus effectively being a Vlog!

That means I want to hear from you! Do you like Vlogs with some written content or no video and all written content? As always, we love hearing from you so without further adue, enjoy the video on the nutrition framework I created to help women learn how to moderate their eating while staying satisfied with their foods, and still fit into their clothes.

I’ll explain each of the components of the nutritional framework in bullets below the video.

Through Staying Satisfied. Savoring Slowly (mindfulness), Save Time, Survive Social Situations, and Sweet Relief, I’ve created a 5 pronged approach to moderating our eating for satisfaction and enjoyment while managing hunger and cravings and still working towards our goals.

Some of these strategies are also available for you to download in a super handy, quick reference 1-page nutrition cheat sheet —>HERE<—

#STAYSATISFIED:

• You have to like and enjoy what you are eating – you have to like the way you eat. 
• If there is anything you’re currently doing in a meal plan that disgusts you or makes you unexcited – stop doing it. 
• Eating moderately and mindfully is about being satisfied EVERY DAY with what we’re eating so that we don’t live for cheat days or cheat meals.
•  To increase your satisfaction factor look at a few things: The actual food you choose and the rituals or experiences that come along with it that is enjoyable (coconut creamer in my coffee, wine, chocolate,…)
• How do you know what foods are satisfying to you: determine what foods you eat, by writing a list of them, when you eat these foods: how satisfied are you on a scale of 1-10

#SAVORSLOWLY AKA MINDFULNESS:

• Eating to 80% full – what this means to me is that I eat and stop before I’m full. It usually means that I feel like I could eat more. It may mean there is food left on the plate, too. This means eating to a point where the belly still feels like it can take in more food. Regardless of the portion sizes you have on the plate, you’re not paying attention to that here, what you’re paying attention to is the sensations of fullness in your belly. 
• Starting out, this one will be hard. Many people tell me that this starts off as the hardest one for them and remains hard, and for several reasons. 1) we feel our portion sizes are already right 2) we have blocks against wasting food.
• Is this food going to make me more satisfied – just asking that to yourself and thinking about that is practicing mindfulness. Every time we check in with ourselves like that, it’s mindfulness.
• As we start practicing mindfulness around our eating habits and the way we feel before and after we eat, this is mindfulness. Then noticing if we were eating throughout the day due to stress? Or coming how and indulging because we hadn’t eaten all day and want a treat/reward. Again- asking these questions are part of being more mindful and aware of how we’re eating.
• NOTE: mindfulness and this example isn’t about: whiteknuckling resisting my hunger – I’m simply observing – hey, I’m hungry as shit and need to get some food in me soon – what are my options – and then NOT LETTING THE HUNGER DRIVE MY DECISION and allowing myself to make a better choice. – This is mindfulness in action.
• Emotional eating is a huge thing. We use food to soothe. we use food to feel happy, we use food to make us feel a certain way. 
• HERE IS THE TAKEAWAY: if you are checking in with yourself before you go back into the kitchen to munch on something after you just finished your lunch: are you feeling agitated or stressed about something? What are you feeling?

Grab the free cheatsheet that puts all the strategies and tools you need to eat for life, in one place.

#SAVETIME/PLAN AHEAD:

• one thing we’re going to do is eliminate the amount of time we spend/spent obsessing and freaking out over the control of our food choices. We will save time and energy by NOT getting caught up on what we ate, because we understand and recognize the long term focus of what we’re doing.
• The reason behind my saying food prep sucks, is based on satisfaction. Our overall satisfaction of a meal needs to be high, every time we eat it. So does that happen when we meal prep 5 days worth of chicken, veggies, and rice on Sunday: no. That’s not satisfying at all, at least for me. I know that and i know that process doesn’t work long term. I’ve done it for periods of time and seen great success and results, but long term that isn’t sustainable for me.
• Look ahead at your week: what nites are you working late: have a meal in place for that night, buy the supplies early in the week, and know your choice of food that night is going to be this one really easy, quick, yet fully satisfying meal that you can make in under 10 minutesEasy go to’s When pressed for time or on the run, go-to’s are best when consisting of protein, fat and fiber and water. ( this helps us stay fuller longer, you will have to experiment with it though)
• For more fiber try eating more fruit and rolled oats. 
• Water=more fruits and veggies, protein=shakes, lean meat, or bowl greek yogurt
• If we’re finding ourselves hungry a short while after our meals, we need to look at these things.

#SURVIVESOCIALSITUATIONS:

• Treating meals like special occasions will tilt us on the deprivation-indulgence scale because of what we tell ourselves.
• Where we get messed up is when we go out and see the opportunity as a special reason to overeat or over indulge VS seeing the meal as a regular meal, and if we aren’t restricting ourselves constantly and finding satisfaction in all our meals, isn’t this just like any other meal?
• TOOLS TO SURVIVING SOCIAL SITUATIONS (when first starting out): 
• pre read the menu and go in with a plan
• utilize the tools in step 2 of savoring it slowly to stay mindful of how we are eating
• navigate the middle and choose something satisfying and healthy
• refrain from eating the most indulgent or shittiest food on the menu

#SWEETRELIEF:

• This is one of my favorites. It is not a secret that I have a huge sweet tooth. I’ve written blogs about growing up how I used to hide candies under my pillow and spend all my money on candies at the local shop.
• What is sweet relief, really? – preemptive cheats or preemptive treats

  – foods or treats that you eat throughout the week that take the edge off – factors in to our overall satisfaction factor

• move away from the concept of a cheat meal or a cheat day – again, eventually, the deprivation we hold on to up to the cheat meal/day is going to have an opposite reaction. 

Staying consistent with your healthy eating shouldn’t be a struggle you go at alone. Having the tools and strategies in place to help you succeed is the first step to staying consistent which is why I put together this 1-page nutrition cheat sheet: so you don’t have to do any guess work! Make sure to grab yours here.