Adding In To Crowd Out + A Wellness Journey Update

We are ditching the perfection mindset and embracing the season of life you are in , all while figuring out what works best for you on your wellness journey . Join me for weekly episodes as we navigate this journey together and let's start a revolution of women who are focused on wellness while also being compassionate and kind to their bodies .

Are you ready to love your body well ? Hey , welcome to episode 38 of the Love Your Body Well podcast , and it's Amy here , all by myself . Today , i am doing a solo episode and I am talking about a couple different things today .

First and foremost , i'm going to talk about the difference in , like , adding something into your wellness routine versus restriction , and how we can feel differently doing that , and then , towards the end of the show , i'm going to give you a little health update and some things that I am working on .

But first and foremost , before we get started , i would love for you to just take a moment and , if you are listening to this and you're not driving . If you wouldn't mind going into Apple podcasts and leaving a rating and review , i would appreciate that so much .

Anytime that you leave a review or you share an episode , it really does help more people connect with the show And I know so many of you are enjoying it because you're messaging me and telling me that and that means so so much to me And I would just love to be able to share it with more people .

So if you could just take just literally like a minute and leave that , i would be forever grateful . Okay , let's dive into today's topic , and that is this idea of adding in , to crowd out Anytime that you are thinking about adding in something to your life .

So let's say that you have some health goals that you want to do and maybe you want to start , you know , thinking better or working out or sleeping or whatever . I think a lot of times people feel very overwhelmed by the need to do more . But I kind of want to give you just a little bit of a different spin on that today .

How many of you have done a diet and you , like , have a list of things that you have to do and you have to eat ? what's in that list . You have to work out a certain way or whatever , and you just feel really overwhelmed by it . Okay , i'm sure you're raising your hand If you're listening to this . I have an idea that you probably are .

The difference is when we restrict like our brains don't like restriction , we just fight it quite honestly , like our bodies fight it . But when we add something in , it just is a different feel . So people don't change what they do in their life based on what they know . They change based on how they want to feel .

So we have to make it easy to do the right thing , because I think that a lot of times we make wellness and health so complex that we throw in the talent and don't do it . We tell ourselves that it has to look this specific and perfect way , and if it doesn't look that way , then what's the point ? and I'm throwing in the towel , it doesn't matter anyway .

We have to stop having this all or nothing mentality And when I say that I'm speaking to myself as well . I think any of us who have had this history with diet culture can relate to that that we do have like kind of an all or nothing , black or white thinking , because that's kind of the way it's designed , to be honest .

Like you have your last supper before you start a diet and then , whatever day you start , then I guess it's probably going to be on a Monday . Then it's like you go all in and you're perfect until you're not , until you can't be perfect anymore , until being perfect is exhausting and frustrating in you Hate your life . Being healthy should not be miserable .

Hear me here Being healthy should not be miserable . I believe that every person should be able to find ways to infuse wellness and healthy choices into their life without making their life a living hell . Quite honestly , i don't know about you , but I've been on diets before that I hated my life on it .

I didn't feel like I got to go and hang out with my friends the way I wanted to , or eat dinner with my family the way that I wanted to . I felt like there was a list of a bajillion things that I couldn't do , and that just leaves us feeling really overwhelmed and frustrated , and I think that we end up having this like a whiny mentality .

So today I want to talk about what can we add in to our lives instead of having this idea of restriction . Let's leave restriction at the table . It's not to say that there's not some things that you might need to sacrifice . For instance , i don't have gluten 99% of the time because I have Hashimoto's .

There are times that I have had it when I just cannot avoid it And that I mean . That's just life , to be honest .

So think about this If health is the goal , if wellness is the goal , if feeling good in our skin , if being able to move the way that we want to move , is the goal , that's lifelong And if we look at something that we are only going to do for a period of time , it is likely that you are not going to get the outcome that you want .

And I know that that might be hard to hear , because too often I hear people say I'm just going to do this for a little while , just to get the weight off , or I'm just going to do this until I go on vacation , or I'm just going to do this for XYZ . If you're not willing to do something forever , then why are you doing it at all ? Why ?

What's the point ? Because wellness is like a lifelong commitment And I'm saying that with all the love in my heart And the way that it can be a lifelong commitment is when you step into this idea of wellness that fits your lifestyle . So what can you add into your life that can level you up in regards to wellness ?

Who can you spend more time around that embody the habits that you want to have ? Like , let's say , you want to work out . Are you spending time around people who never work out and they think that working out is boring and dumb and they hate it ?

Or are you spending time around people who have a habit of working out , or maybe they have , like , a gym membership or a studio membership somewhere and you could meet them there ? You want to spend time in the company of the people who have habits that you want to embody .

If you are constantly surrounding yourself with people who are thinking oppositely of you in regards to your goals , it's going to make you feel stuck . I'm not saying you have to like leave all your friends high and dry . That's not what I'm saying But I want you to truly like surround yourself with people who are going to support your goals of feeling our best .

So what are some ideas for adding in ? Adding in things to your life can be so simple , and I know that simplicity oftentimes in wellness is hard for those of us who have done a lot of diets to wrap our minds around because it doesn't work as quickly .

So I understand that And I know that if you've dieted and you like , like , a quick fix and you like it to happen right away , I hear you , i see you , i understand , i've been there . But just ask yourself what if ? what if I try this instead ?

If you've tried every diet out there or you just keep thinking that dieting is the only way and you keep finding yourself in the same position that you feel miserable and you don't continue to feel your best or you don't continue with your habits , then I'm just going to ask you to try this instead , and that is , choose one thing that you can start today , just

one , and I want it to be so simple that you're barely going to notice that you're doing it And essentially what you're going to do is you're just going to add this thing in And then after a while , when that is integrated into your life , then you add in something else . So it's kind of brainstorm here some things that you could do .

You could add a vegetable with each meal . So examples For breakfast in the morning , you could add spinach to your eggs . You could prepare some sweet potatoes ahead of time and serve them with your eggs , or serve them with sausage or something else with your meal .

You could also like , if you make a morning smoothie , you could throw like spinach or I like to rice cauliflower in my smoothies as well , so you can easily add veggies in your breakfast . For lunch you could do a salad . For dinner you could do a salad , or like a side , a vegetable side of some sort .

Another trick is to prep your vegetables ahead of time , so like when you go to the grocery store . How many times have you bought like cucumbers that never even get cut and they go moldy and they're in the trash before you ever even gotten them ? Well , when you go to the grocery store , make sure you also have time to cut and prepare your vegetables .

That way they are easy to grab . And at night , when you're making meals I don't know about you , but sometimes that's when I feel a little snacky Pull out your vegetables at that time and nibble on those instead of like nibbling on chips or whatever is by you . So add a vegetable at each meal . That's an idea . Another idea add in a five minute walk .

This can be literally any time of day . It could be first thing in the morning , it could be maybe you drive your car to go get your mail and you're going to start walking to go get your mail . It could be after a meal .

It can be maybe you have a five minute break at work and you're going to choose that to do like one lap around your building or one lap , you know , of stairs or something like that . So where can you add in just a smidge more movement , just a little bit ?

I'm not telling you to go find 45 minutes to exercise , i'm telling you to find five if this is your thing that you want to add in . Something else you could do is add a glass of water before coffee in the morning or before anything else in the morning .

So like I have to take a thyroid medication in the morning , so for me and I know a lot of you listening have to take thyroid medication , so I can't have , you know , any caffeine or food actually for 30 minutes to an hour after taking my thyroid medication . So that is a perfect time to get in a lot more water .

Like drink one to two glasses of water before you have anything else . Another thing that people do a lot is if they have like a pop habit that they're kind of wanting to pick , or a coffee habit that's kind of gotten out of control , is having a glass of water before you have something like that . So like when you sit down for lunch .

Let's say that you like to have your pop of lunch and you sit down for lunch , make yourself drink like a glass of water before you have to pop something like that , so you're not taking away the pop .

The idea of adding these different things in , or adding one thing at a time , is truly to just crowd out the things that are no longer serving you or the things that don't align with your goals . That is , the goal is just to crowd that stuff gently out .

Before you realize it , you're like , oh , i'm just having water with lunch or oh , it's just become very natural that I find a vegetable to add with my breakfast . Another good one that I want to suggest is some type of meditation or breath work . There have been multiple podcasts that I have shared on this .

I know that stress is a big thing , and stress really does keep us sick and it keeps us stuck . It keeps us from being able to move forward with the way that we want to feel . So when can you add in a meditation or a breath work ? Some ideas of when you can do this are first thing in the morning . You can also do it right before bed .

You can do it , honestly . You can do it sitting in your car . I mean , don't try this , please , but you can do that breath work like a four , seven , eight breath in your car at a stoplight . You can do it driving up and down the road , honestly , just like calming yourself down .

So that breath work is going to be really important if stress relief is something that you want to incorporate more into your life , even like reading . If meditation is not your thing , maybe just reading . I love to read . I love to read before bed especially , and I know a lot of times we get in these kind of ruts of like watching TV to go to bed .

If you enjoy reading and that's something that you're not doing anymore , what about picking up a book instead and reading even for five minutes , just five , and as a way to just calm yourself down ? That could be another way to just kind of get your stress level down .

The last one that I am going to share , but there are literally like hundreds of different things that you can do , so I want you to be brainstorming your own , and if you have other things that you're going to try doing more of , i would love to hear it . You can either email me or you can DM me over on Instagram .

I would love to hear just something that you can add into your life to crowd out the other habits that maybe aren't serving you well . But another one I want to suggest is just five minutes of sunlight in the morning . Just go outside , get five minutes of the sunlight just on your face , your body well , thank you for that .

What it does is it gets you in your circadian rhythm . It tells your body it's time to be awake and it's time to prepare for the day , and so that is just a really , really great way to just kind of like naturally wake yourself up in the morning . The purpose of all of this like adding one thing in at a time is to just focus less on restriction .

Like I said , we want to learn how to make healthy choices easier for us . I think being healthy kind of gets a bad rap because we think that being healthier automatically means that it's going to be harder , and that does not need to be true .

We can make the healthy choice easier , but that's going to take a little brain work And , yeah , there might need to be some sacrifices that are going to be made . I'm sure that there are , but we don't have to do them all at once and you can definitely ease into them .

I think something that I've really learned on this wellness journey is that patience is at the top of the list .

You have to learn how to have patience in this journey , because when you are not dieting and restricting for quick weight loss or quick wins , it does go slower , quite honestly , like the way that you feel it doesn't happen overnight , it's not going to , and the older that you get , trust me , the older that you get . It's not happening overnight anymore .

Nothing's happening overnight . So when you go all in too quickly , it's really easy to get burned out , and the point isn't to just go hard for like a month or two and then quit and you lose all your progress .

The goal is really like how can I incorporate this into my life , naturally to where this doesn't feel hard , like it doesn't have to be this big thing that you're doing . It just is what you do .

If you're sitting there and you're like I can't do it any , i've tried and I can't I'm telling you I believe in you And I think that you can , but I think that the mindset is what we have to get figured out here , and so I don't want you to put a timeline on anything . I don't want you to make it overly complicated .

I want you to ask yourself what can I do today to win ? What can be done to win today ? How can I make today feel easier ? One thing , that's all I'm asking you to do One simple thing to add in that will crowd out something that is no longer serving you .

A book I love is called Atomic Habits , and I think that's a really excellent book for anybody who's thinking about like adding in some different habits . You know that habits are important to me .

I think that it is one way that we can really easily build on our wellness journey , because we often overcomplicate it and then we can feel so overwhelmed that we give up on ourselves , and I don't want you to give up on yourself . I know that sometimes that feels easier to just like throw in the towel and be like , well , nothing's working anyway .

Why do I continue to do this ? I want you to know I see you there , i'm there with you actually right now , and that point that I have felt that way for a while . My nighttime routine is one of my favorites .

I end every day by washing my face , and on nights , when I have time , i use a gua sha stone as well to literally melt the stress off my face . I discovered gua sha when I wanted to stop doing Botox and I love how it makes my skin feel .

I use a gua sha stone from Primally Pure along with facial oil , and it's one of my favorite ways to unwind before I get into bed . You can use code LOVEYOURBODYWELL10 to save 10% on your order at Primally Pure and check out their gua sha stone . I've linked the one that I love in the show notes .

So today is actually my 41st birthday , and this past year I had kind of a different idea of what that was going to look like and feel like I had really big aspirations , to be honest with you , that I didn't share publicly , with the way that I wanted to feel .

On my 40th year , i was really , really excited actually to turn 40 and this year kind of like knocked me off my pedestal and it made me kind of really turn inward . I had to turn inward for a lot of different things this year and just ask myself like , what's holding you back ? You know why ? Why do you feel the way that you do ?

What answers do you need ? What do you have plenty of answers on ? and you're just holding yourself back because you're scared . And so , yeah , my 40th year went differently than I anticipated , but I am not using that to beat myself up going into my 41st year .

Instead , i'm honestly using it for like some fuel to the fire and I think I'm finally at a point that I'm like okay , i am going to have to step out of my comfort zone to feel the way that I want to feel , and that's really important to me , because I'm kind of tired of not feeling my best And I often say I chase a feeling , and I think that that's

really important . I'm no longer , like , overly focused on the number , on the scale , but I'm chasing a feeling , and that feeling I can't ignore that . I just do feel more fatigued .

This summer I've just felt hot as hell , if I can be honest , and I know that's because I'm just carrying around some extra weight , to be honest , and I'm also not able to move the way that I want to . And so what do I need to do in order to help myself really focus on my health ?

I have focused so much on sleep the last couple months , which I've been really proud of myself about . I have been working on sleep for years .

I feel like , and I feel like I'm finally at a point that I am getting over seven hours a night most nights of the week , and so I'm really proud of myself for that that I've been able to do that , and it's proof that I actually do feel better when I sleep more . And so what other areas need a little bit more focus of mine ?

So I'm sure you're wondering what are you doing ? So what I did is I hired a coach . Actually from metabolism makeover , i interviewed Megan Hansen It's been a couple episodes back . I'll make sure to link that in the show notes about basically repairing your metabolism and how that can help you focus on wellness , to feel better .

But healing my metabolism is something that I know . I have actually had testing done to know that my metabolism is slow . So add that on with Hashimoto's and hypothyroidism and that's just a lovely combination , and so I really do need to heal my metabolism from all my years of dieting . I dieted from the time I was 10 years old until the time I was like 36 .

So I dieted from the age of 10 years old until 36 . So 25 years , 26 years , i dieted and it is not going to . My body just won't change overnight . Throw in three pregnancies in there and autoimmune and all that , and I mean I just have to have a lot of grace and a lot of patience . Like I said earlier And I do I have that .

I want to feel my best and I know that I need a little accountability with that . I just I personally want somebody that I can talk to and go to for support to help me on this journey to feel better . I want to feel better and I want to do it in a really healthy way that is not overly focused on , you know , like counting everything that I'm eating .

I've lived that life and I just don't . I just don't want it . If that means that the only way that I can be in a size that makes me feel more like myself is to like manipulate and restrict everything in my life . I'm just not here for it . I'm not going to do it , but I can make some sacrifices .

You know baby steps each and every day And I can talk about some things that are hanging me up , and I just need that accountability , and I never think it's a bad idea to seek out help where you need it , especially in regards to your health , because your health is everything , like our health is everything .

It can literally make such a huge difference in our lives if we allow it to . I mean good or bad , to be honest , and now is the time for me to do that . My kids are all getting a little bit older .

I feel like I've just been in this border of motherhood for so many years And especially like when we had our third , i just feel like I have not been able to like come up for air . It's felt challenging . Three kids has felt challenging , but she's getting older .

She's , you know , over four now And I finally do feel like okay , like it's time to focus on me So I can be the mom that I want to be And I can feel the way that I want to feel . I'm not letting it hold me back . I'm not taking them to the pool this summer . I've done all the things . I'm wearing the shorts and doing the things .

I just want to do it more comfortably is really where I'm at . So I'm turning towards myself rather than away , because I know that I deserve to feel my best And I'm not allowing myself to feel any shame for the current state at which I'm in . I know that shame does not serve me well And I'm focused on today .

Today , and that's all I can focus on And that's what I would encourage . Anybody listening who is maybe in a similar position that I am , who feels like you've been , you know , taking some strides to . You know , help yourself , be the healthiest that you can be , but you're still not really where you want to be .

Just have lots of grace and patience with yourself and then ask yourself , like , what needs to change . Still , you know , a lot of times I think that we I'll say me , a lot of times I think that I'm like I'm doing everything I possibly can , but if the results aren't adding up to that , then something needs to shift .

And being willing and open to do that is just where I'm at right now And knowing that I'm worth that , i'm worth the investment of my time and my finances quite honestly right now to focus on that , and so I'll keep you updated with how it goes . And it's in no way a diet at all .

I've made that super clear to Ellie , the girl that I'm working with , just that . I am really just needing an accountability coach who I can say , hey , this is how I want to feel and these are some of my goals right now . Just keep me accountable and help me feel my best , and I want that for myself and I want that for my family .

So that's kind of a little health update on me and where I am at now . But I hope this episode just empowers you a little bit to just take that one small step forward , to make something , make a different choice , and I would love to hear what you're going to add in and then see how it just crowds out .

I'd love to just kind of hear about how that experiment is going to go with you on your own health journey . So please shoot me an email anytime , dm me on Instagram . I'd love to connect and talk to you about where you're at in your journey .

Those messages are some of my very favorite , just when you guys just tell me where you're at and how you're feeling .

And I also love hearing how the podcast is helping you , and just such a blessing to just show up here each and every week and share the things that are important to me , being able to share my story and share where I'm at now , with leaving perfection behind .

Quite honestly , that's been something I've had to kind of get over as this kind of this imposter syndrome , but like I need to be this certain way to show up in this space And what I've realized is that being healthy is not a certain size , it's never a certain number , it's not a weight , it's not a gender , it's not an age , it's none of that .

Being healthy and feeling your best is so individual and it's something that only we can decide for ourselves . And I'm just tuning and leaning into that so much now , like what is important to me ? What do I want for my life ? What does healthy look like for me ?

And I encourage you to do the same thing and just ask yourself that important question Like how can I show up best for myself today ? So thanks for tuning in today , appreciate you .

Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the Love Your Body Well podcast . If you enjoyed this episode , i would appreciate it if you would leave a rating and review and let me know what resonated with you the most . This helps more people connect to the show and allows me to continue encouraging women just like you .

I love when you share episodes that impacted you on social media or with your friends and family . It truly helps spread the word of compassion and kindness that all women need more of . I invite you to continue the conversation with me on my blog , loveyourbodywellnet , or on Instagram at loveyourbodywell . Thank you for being here today .

I know you have a lot of podcasts to choose from and I'm honored that you listened to mine . This podcast is for informational purposes only and not intended to provide a diagnosis or replace medical care .