The “common sense health approach”for busy moms
I recently went to an event where health coach Brad Jensen, host of the Key Nutrition Podcast, gave a short presentation on steps to take to manage your weight before going on a diet. He recommended doing these things for at least a month before you even consider doing anything more extreme. I really loved that approach and I know from personal experience that these are all of the most important components to maintaining a healthy weight. And most importantly they are doable for most people on an ongoing basis, which dieting most definitely is not!
I’ve listed his recommendations with some of my own notes and thoughts along with them.
#1 - Sleep
Sleep deprivation causes insulin resistance, makes you crave carbs and caffeine, makes it hard to want to move and exercise, and can lead to poor decision making. According to Brad this is the most underrated part of any physical transformation.
Give yourself a bedtime and stick to it as much as possible. On weekends try to stay within an hour of your usual sleep/wake-up times.
*Note to moms. I kind of hate this advice because this is such a challenge for most of us. Once you become a mom, a solid 8 hrs of sleep may be just a fantasy for years to come. (My kids are almost all grown and I still rarely sleep that long without interruption!) If this advice just discourages you even more, just know that you are doing the best you can and it is ok to be tired. You can always focus more on the other steps in this list that are more doable for you in this season of life.
As far as giving yourself a bedtime and sticking to it even on weekends, I think parents need to get extra sleep whenever they can. So if you can sleep in or take naps on the weekends, I say do it!
#2 - Take More Steps & Incorporate More Non-Exercise Movement
Apparently the reason you always hear about taking 10K steps is because studies have found that is a good baseline and really helps people lose fat at a higher rate. Look for little ways to hack your life so you can fit in more steps. Park farther away from entrances, take the stairs when you can, walk to do errands whenever possible etc.
He also said that taking even a short walk after meals can aid in digestion and a fancy term called nutrient partitioning.
*Note from me: Author and podcaster Katy Bowman has a lot of great info on non-exercise movement. Trying to find more ways to move throughout your daily life has huge benefits. Most moms do this without trying while keeping up with the kids. But it’s nice to be aware that all that running around you do to keep up with the kids is actually helping you stay fit even if you never make it to a class at the gym or get out for a run!
#3 - Drink More Water
His recommendation is half your body weight in ounces each day, plus 15 oz. if you exercise.
Drinking enough water helps us eat less at meal time and cuts down on salt and sugar cravings. It also aids in digestion and elimination. Surprisingly, drinking enough water helps us retain less water. (If we are dehydrated our bodies want to hold on to water.)
I’m sure we all know the importance of drinking water, but sometimes it still seems difficult. Just keep doing the best you can and let your body adjust to it gradually. Brad even said that you can count diet drinks in your total water intake. Hooray for that! I’ve heard so many others say that you should never touch diet drinks and that they don’t count in your total water intake. I appreciate Brad for telling me what I wanted to hear. ;)
Tip: Adding a lemon squeeze to your water can help even more with digestion. Lemon can help balance your body’s ph and boost your immunity.
#4 - Stop Eating When You are Full
My favorite thing he said was that the best exercise of them all is pushing your plate away when you are full. Haha I love that!
He said that eating more slowly is a simple way to start to do this. It takes the body time to start to digest food so if you can slow down when eating you will have a better chance at recognizing your body’s full signals than you will if you are eating quickly. This might be another challenge for us moms, but taking time to eat slowly and enjoy our food is a nice way to give ourselves a little self-care a few times a day! As a bonus we can teach our kids this skill while we are working on it ourselves.
#5 - Make Healthier Choices
This sounds obvious but what he was getting at here was just to take little opportunities to swap out higher calorie foods for lower calories foods when we can. Even if it’s not all the time, we can do it sometimes and save a lot of calories in the process.
A good place to start is with the meals we eat out. These days most restaurant menus have calorie counts. Sometimes it’s surprising to notice which are the higher and lower calorie choices when eating out. Even if you choose to get your favorite menu items, you can always find ways to cut some calories. Get a smaller size of fries, eliminate one of the buns on your sandwich or burger, or share the dessert with someone else and you can save 100-300 calories in just one meal.
#6 Log Your Food Intake (This one is actually mine.)
To be honest, this is the only strategy that has ever worked for me to actually lose weight. All the other strategies Brad listed are good habits for sure, but the quickest and easiest way I have ever found to change my behavior is by knowing what’s going in my mouth. Start doing this with an app like Lose It or My Fitness Pal and you will soon become very aware of where you could save some calories. For me it is snacks, desserts, and breads. I like to eat all of those things, but that is where the calories really add up and the easiest place to cut back. Cut out a snack or make a healthier choice. Skip dessert some days and plan to enjoy something on the weekend. Eat bread but stop at one slice of bread, half a bun or bagel and you will save 100 calories or more every time you do.
I used to think logging my food was tedious and that it would make me feel deprived. One day I realized that was just a thought and not a helpful one at that. I decided to start logging my food to empower myself to make better choices. It’s actually pretty fun to see how many calories I burn in a day and how I can stay in a calorie deficit with just small changes like I talked about earlier. I’ve done this for well over a year and I think I probably will always do it to some extent. Calories add up quickly and I forget quickly what I’ve eaten if I don’t stay accountable. Also, if i’m losing or gaining weight it’s great to have a record of what I’ve been eating so I know what’s working and what’s not.
I recommend picking one or two of these areas where you think you can improve and just give it a try. You don’t have to be perfect to see improvements and feel better. Most of all…
Remember that little changes really can add up in big ways over time.
I love these tips because in my experience these are the most helpful and (mostly) doable long-term strategies. We can work on these all our lives and keep seeing the benefits more and more over time. No one wants to stick with a diet for long, but we all want to take care of ourselves and feel our best to have energy for mom life and everything else we are doing.
I hope that in sharing these you won’t feel discouraged and like you are doing everything wrong. My purpose in sharing is just the opposite. I want to encourage you to take small and simple steps as you feel you can. The scriptures say that through small and simple things, great things are brought to pass. That is literally the gospel truth and such an empowering thought!
Diets are not small and simple things. They tend to make us cranky and take our focus off the more important things in life. And the worst part is diets tend to be driven by things like our need for approval or thoughts of unworthiness because of our weight.
Consistently making small improvements and better choices is how you win at weight loss without losing your mind. And remember that you don’t need to lose even one pound EVER to love yourself and enjoy life. Beauty and confidence come from within and the only approval you ever need is self-approval. God loves you and approves of you just the way you are. Sometimes the hardest thing is loving ourselves and making positive changes out of self-love. That’s just part of being human and it is a life-long quest.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. You can drop a comment below or email me at rachel@mom-mindset.com.
XOXO
Rachel
