Hey there friends, welcome to the podcast. Welcome to today’s episode. And thank you so much for being here.
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So I’m gonna hop right in today’s kind of a Down and dirty episode of Get myself on track. I’ve got my bullet points. And you know, just want to get I think this is just a really tactical one things that you can take and apply today. So we’ll hop right in, you’re busy, it’s the holidays, let’s go.
Number one five ways to make choosing healthy options a no brainer number one is to not have the stuff in the house that is going to tempt you. And if you have to have it in the house, at least put it not at eye level or in clear containers, put it away get it off the counters. So you know, this is the foods that you know maybe that you will typically overindulgent or that tempt you ordered are just that they’re the sometimes foods right but they’re not the best quality sometimes foods or even if they are, you know if it’s something that’s gonna keep calling to say like a nice dark chocolate that’s pretty, quote unquote healthy for you as a treat. But you’ve got it like right out in view all day, you’ve got a beautiful clear candy bowl. Like, that’s very common. Actually, it sounds funny, but I’ll have clients be like, I just can’t resist, you know, gummy bears. And I’m like, Alright, like, where are you encountering gummy bears. And they’re like, Well, I keep a clear canister of them on my desk at work like, okay, that’s why you get this gummy bear. So make it hard study show research shows that you need to make things harder on yourself. And we won’t do them like humans do not like to have to work harder than you know, like, we don’t like to put out that much effort. And sometimes I’ll make us just stop what we were going to do because it’s too much effort. So like we do this in our house, we have one like basket of treats that we call like the Sunday treats. So if they get so if the kids get suckers during the week, or even like receives or whatever chocolates, like we just toss them in this basket, but it’s on the highest shelf in our kitchen, not a clear basket. It’s like a woven baskets tucked in the corner of the highest shelf. So we always pull it out on Sundays after mass for them for a treat, if they were good at maths, that is the straight bribery that we do. But, you know, so if I get a hankering for chocolate, I’m gonna have to get this stool climb around up there, grab it out of it, like it’s enough to usually make me be like not worth it. Maybe some days I’ll do it but it’s a heck of a lot harder than having things you know, this goes for think about your fridge. If there’s stuff in your fridge that’s healthier, like you want to put the healthy stuff at eye level. This is basically a marketing tool. That’s what they do to you in the grocery stores, they put stuff at eye level they want you to buy. So work the system the other way you know cut up your fruits and vegetables and put them at eye level in the fridge in clear containers. I have a podcast episode about how to best preserve your produce and things like that there’s some things that you should keep in water, there’s some things you should dry you know, there’s all kinds of hacks and tips so that you can prep things to make it easy for yourself to just grab easy healthy choices, but not sacrifice the freshness. Okay, like one of them is like keeping celery and water that was a game changer for me I started putting it in a mason jar in the fridge and at eye level and I go in and just grab a stalk of celery like I don’t normally just opt to grab socks celery all the time. So and carrot same thing carrot sticks but those in water and had a little bit little mason jar that was in there. So definitely upped the possibility of me spilling things in my fridge all day long, but has kept my my produce fresher longer. Okay, so work that both ways. Put the not so great stuff for you all way high, downstairs in the basement, whatever you got to do with it, and then make the easy stuff really easy to grab.
Now, tip number two is very closely related and that is to make healthy snacks very available but by this I mean a little slightly different tick. Think about your usual places and stash your healthy snacks there. So yes, this is probably going to be a little bit more of your quote unquote processed healthy foods because like what I’m thinking is in the car, okay, I have healthy snacks stashed in the car at home if you work outside the home like in your desk drawer I used to when I was teaching I’m just available because that’s a big excuse of why we make last minute decisions to go through the drive thru or whatever because we were not prepared is usually what it comes down to. So things that I do is choices that I make that are cleaner options but aren’t gonna you know, that are pretty quick, that are not pretty quick to go bad that are not quickly perishable. I am batch recording before the baby and I am in like my eighth podcasts in a row, so we’re getting a little jumbled with the words I’ll be honest. Still love, you know still love you all so very committed to being here just doing a lot in row. So we’re, you know, the words are not with me but I keep cashews in the car and OH Not everybody can do nuts. But I keep a big ol thing of cashews and then raw rev loads a really clean granola bar, or protein bar, not really granola bar, I use Vermont brand jerky sticks, I keep in the car different places. And I’m going to do the same thing for a little nursing station. For before the baby comes. I haven’t done this yet, but it’s I’m gonna plan for right about now, last couple weeks of November. I have written out that will not check any of you who know me. In real life that I wrote out in about September 21 ish, I started getting panicked about how much there was to do for baby. And I wrote out like a week by week guideline of what I need to do before the baby comes. And you know, man plans and God laughs so I don’t know how this is going at this point. But somewhere in November, it’s set up my little nursing station, where I’m going to do the same thing right next to my rocker just, I have a little, you know, cart. And I’m going to put these kinds of things in there. So that when I’m hungry in the middle of the night, dude, these are things I’m grabbing. So that is, you know, that tip for tip number two have healthy snacks everywhere.
Tip number three is set rules for yourself about not being able to have X until you’ve had y. Okay, so this sounds more strict than it is basically what I mean by this is like, have a kind of standard for yourself where if you’re are going to enjoy a treat, or an indulgence, you’ve had to hit certain markers. Not as like a you have to work for it or distract or something but it helps to make sure you’re getting the healthy stuff in. So I’ll do this to myself. If I say want a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup or something like that. Be like okay, well have I had three to five servings of vegetables yet today. And if I haven’t, I have to go have that first. And then I can like have that later. Same thing with like, just fun drinks. Like say I want a kind of sugary mocktail or whatever I will right now be like, Okay, well have I had my red raspberry leaf tea first, because I’m going to do that. Because sometimes like, this is a good example of how just by focusing on what you’re getting into your diet, the good stuff, hitting the good targets, you actually filter out some of the not as great ones because you just can’t consume that much in a day, you really can’t. So if you’re going by these other markers, sometimes that just phases the other things out or you get to enjoy it later, but you’ve gotten the good stuff in. So don’t you don’t have to do this with a million things. But I would pick one or two things where, you know, say you really want to have a beer at night. But you’re like well did I hit my 80 to 100 ounces of water like I’ve got to hit that first before I can have a beer and that kind of makes you you know, keep your healthy habit in there.
Alright, number four is to put bail out foods in your freezer. I’m shouting this one from the rooftops we talked about in our healthy fall prep series if you run for that, but I cannot say more. I really can’t I don’t think you can say enough about foods. These are things it could be like you’ve helped yourself out and you double portioned a meal and put it in your freezer that’s like the best and usually how these kind of ALA food, say I’m making a big thing a turkey meatloaf and I just make two and I stick one in my freezer super pumped and I can just pull that out for dinner. But more often than not it looks like something that’s pre packaged already. So it is you know on the highly processed radar but it’s a cleaner type or it’s a healthier version like a cauliflower pizza.
I’ve talked about before these again have seed oils and things but I like the general Sour Chicken and all the that’s it’s actually the gluten free brand which we’re not gluten free but I just think it’s the tastiest of the general sell frozen options I’ve had comparing and contrasting to Wegmans and Trader Joe’s and many different grocery stores. I like this particular one and I like that you can just buy the chicken you don’t have to get it like mixed with a bunch of other stuff because whenever you do that there’s not enough chicken you get some like chicken veggie rice or chicken veggie lo mein there’s always like three pieces of chicken and then a bunch of noodles or something. So I like that it’s just a big bag of chicken I make the rice I make the I do the frozen broccoli but that can all be bail out foods like you can get the rice pouches for just times that you’re in a pinch. Get this teamable bags of broccoli I know that’s not the best but like for when you’re in a pinch and now instead of hitting the drive thru on the way home or making a late night DoorDash call or something you are going to your freezer and it’s usually cheaper and healthier. That’s what I think about when I use my little general cell all the chicken I’m like this is not the best quality. But you know what would be worse is me getting actual Chinese takeout right now, like nine times out of 10 So me having a cauliflower pizza, some preservatives, is still gonna be better than me. Ordering out for takeout pizza from whatever or shop. Okay, so help your future self out and just get some belt food, just go do one whole grocery trip of just like bailout stuff. I did this the other day with a grocery pickup I just stacked up on paper products and on bailout foods, and I felt good knowing things were pretty stocked up.
Okay, last one, because we are talking about just in general make, you know, choosing the healthy option. And I’ve spent four of these bullet points on nutrition. But the last one is to set reminders to help you remember to move. So especially if you have a sedentary job, but you can kind of go for a little walk around the building, or take a walk at your lunch break or just move in some way, get up and stretch. Oh my goodness. We need help though. We need reminders. So if you go through maybe on your phone, this can be a positive way to use your phone is go through and set reminders to go off every hour. I mean, imagine if every hour you have two minutes to move, even every couple hours, like to move for five minutes, whatever that looks like, especially if you’re staying home mom like your kids probably needed to so you can do it with them. If you’re at work again and you have a more pocket kind of job. It’ll give you excuses to get up and go do something. And like I said, sometimes we just need the reminder. So instead of being like, Oh man, I’ve only gotten 2000 steps today, we’re proactively giving you a helpmate here to help you get those steps a little bit higher. It’s not going to magically happen. You’re not currently doing it you got to do something to help make that a habit. All right. So I hope that was helpful like I said, just down and dirty and quick things that you can apply right away.
On next episode, we’re gonna talk about what I call the sweet spot which is where you get to live your life, but you’re also seeing progress and what that actually looks like what how you can do that, especially as we purchase holidays here, how you can enjoy yourself, even if you’re still trying to make progress on fat loss or something like that. That is up for us. That’s on deck. Alright, so I hope you have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you next time. Bye
Summary:
Making healthy choices easier by limiting temptation. 0:02
Host suggests storing unhealthy foods out of sight to avoid temptation.
Food temptation and self-control. 1:03
Brittany discusses the importance of making healthy choices harder to access, such as keeping sweets in a hard-to-reach location like a high shelf or a woven basket.
Brittany shares an example of how their family sets aside treats in a basket on a high shelf for special occasions, making it more challenging to access and therefore less likely to be overindulged in.
Organizing fridge for healthy snacks and meal prep. 2:48
Brittany suggests organizing fridge to make healthy choices easy to grab, while storing less fresh items in a basement or other hard-to-reach location.
Brittany keeps cashews and protein bars in the car for quick snacks, planning to set up a nursing station with similar options for when the baby arrives.
Brittany is preparing for the baby’s arrival by writing out a week-by-week guide for what needs to be done, including setting up a nursing station with healthy snacks nearby.
Healthy habits and self-regulation. 6:15
Brittany suggests setting rules for yourself about indulgences, such as having a standard for when you can enjoy a treat based on hitting certain healthy food targets.
Brittany recommends freezing bailout foods, such as Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, to help maintain healthy eating habits.
Healthy meal prep and exercise habits. 8:09
Brittany discusses using a “freezer cell” to store pre-made meals, including cauliflower pizza and chicken, for healthier and cheaper alternatives to takeout.
Brittany suggests stocking up on bailout foods, such as rice and frozen broccoli, to save money and make healthier choices when in a pinch.
Set reminders to move every hour to help increase physical activity.
