(upbeat music) Welcome to the Mindful Balance Mini Podcast. If you are a woman over 40, ready to break free from fad diets and discover the power of balance and confidence in your life, then this podcast is for you. And I am so happy that you are here. I'm your host, I'm Rachel, a nutrition and mindset coach, and I'm going to break down everything you need to know into bite-sized pieces of sustainable and realistic tips.
(upbeat music) I wanna invite you to join me as we explore practical strategies to stop overe ating, nourish your body, and use the potential of your amazing brain to achieve your goals. If you haven't already, make sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode filled with insights on nutrition, mindset, and building healthy habits. (upbeat music) Hey there, welcome back.
If you are listening to this podcast when it is published, then it is right after Thanksgiving weekend here in the US. I wanted to support you mainly if you are someone who feels that this weekend was a huge setback. However, this is actually a great episode to help you whenever you feel down with how you handled food. It can be after a vacation, a challenging day, or any other holiday, birthday, et cetera.
All those situations that tend to be a bit sticky , a little bit more challenging if you are on the journey of stopping overeating. If you've been working on changing your eating habits, but this weekend hasn't gone exactly as planned, or you feel that you fell off the wagon, you messed up, or any other way that describes you not being too happy or too proud of your choices, then this episode is for you. Episode 20 is all about what to do if you feel that you overate and messed up.
So let's get started. When you are working on changing your eating habits, your relationship with food, and just in general, ending overeating, this is what falling off may look and feel like. Typically, you've been good for whatever you consider to be a significant amount of time. Maybe it's a few days, a week, or a few weeks. Maybe it is a few months even, and you think that you are making good progress.
You are changing and you're doing what you want to be doing, and it's pretty exciting and doable. But then for whatever reason, let's say a holiday weekend, you fall back to old patterns. Now, of course, for most women, that would be pretty frustrating, and that is completely understandable.
When you're trying not to do something, and you've been on point about not doing it, and then you end up doing it suddenly, it makes sense that you would be disappointed, annoyed, or something along those lines. And again, it's okay to feel that way. It's normal to feel that way. But a problem I see many women fall into often is that when this happens, they then start thinking that now they have to start over. And that for sure doesn't feel good.
When you think you've come so far and are now back at step one, it will feel very discouraging. And often there's some hopelessness in there too, especially if this has happened to you before, or it is a pattern that you've recognized over the years. If you keep seeing yourself do well and then go back to the beginning, then of course you are going to feel all kind of negative feelings. And thinking this way can also make it harder for you to get back to the powerful work that you've been doing.
When you think that you have to start all over after you've already done so much work, and when you thought that you had come so far, and if it took a long, off-focused effort to get there, then you're going to feel discouraged, and it's going to feel daunting. And when that happens, you're not going to feel driven to start over. That's the reason it takes you a while to get yourself to do it again, probably a lot longer than if you weren't thinking of it as starting over.
When you do well and then you overeat, which happens to everyone, but if you learn to go through this process and be okay with those pitfalls, you don't have to think of it as starting over. As tempting it is to think about it as starting over, it's not only unhelpful to you moving forward, it is simply not true. All the things you have learned about yourself, the mental growth you achieved throughout this process, you have not lost it over one meal, over one day, or even an entire weekend.
You still have all of it in you. Now, maybe you will need a refresher on what you 've learned, but it's a refresher on what you already know. You do not need to start learning it without any previous knowledge like you once did before. You are just revisiting and reminding. And I will even say that maybe you'll need to work on those skills again.
Maybe, maybe that's where you are at right now, but it's like when a new year rolls around and for the first few weeks after we start a new year, I always have a problem remembering to write the new year, for example, on checks. It is now the end of '23, and I know that I will have this problem as soon as we are moving into 2024, and every time I will write a check, I will make a mistake and I will write 2023. The other day, I decided to try grocery shopping at a new place.
I got in the car and I called my friend just to catch up. We were talking and sure thing, I found myself in the parking lot of my regular supermarket. I was so into the conversation that I kind of let my habit take charge and my brain led me to the place that I normally drive to when I go food shopping. It makes total sense. If you don't pay attention, your brain will use your current habits to act on . And that is exactly what's happening when you fall back into old habits.
Here's another way to frame it. Think about one skill that you have that you haven't practiced or engaged with for a while. Let's say speaking a language or playing an instrument. No matter what it is, when you get back to it, you are never starting from zero. So why, when women are facing a setback, they immediately think that they have to start over. It makes no sense when you think about it this way.
One day of not doing what they've been doing, or even if it's been a week or a month of not doing it, they will think that they are starting over. But they're not. They can't be. It cannot be that you have to start from step one . They have gained so much and they have gained too much knowledge to lose in a day, in a week, or even in a month, and maybe even in a year. The only thing that happened is you took a break from doing the work with intention and now you'll get back to it.
It's like if you're driving somewhere and you're doing well on time, you are progressing well and then you hit a det our or you have to stop for food. Yes, you've stopped going straight towards your destination, but when you get back to the original route that you're on, you are not starting over. You're just picking up where you left off.
And when we think back to eating and overeating, honestly, if you are doing this whole managing setback right, you have actually the ability to add to your progress. What I mean by that is that if you are learning from what happened, you are learning something about yourself, about what you need to work on, or what needs more focus from you, or something that you have forgotten, the setback shows us something that we need to know, that we need to refresh on, or that we need to get back to doing.
You're basically getting back to work with a clear task that you need to work on. Take note, let go of the judgment, move on. The only thing that can stay in your way right now, today, is you getting into your own head and using what happened as proof that you can never change, or that it means something about your personality , about your commitment, or your ability to get to your goals.
Making overeating mean that you have messed up and that therefore it is not something that's worth working on. And really any other negative self-talk is the only way to make sure you won't get to your destination. So please stop using a normal progression of growth against yourself. Stop using it as evidence that it is impossible, or that you are a person who always self-sabotage . That is nonsense, my friend. Don't do that. Let go of whatever happened this weekend and just move on.
I promise you, you are not at step one. All right, that's all for today. I will talk to you next time, bye. Thank you for tuning in to the Mindful Balance Podcast today. I hope you enjoyed our conversation and find inspiration to find your unique balance and confidence. Remember that the journey continues on Instagram. You can find me @rachelemmanutrition. That is one word where I share daily nuggets of wisdom to help you reach your goals with ease.
If you loved today's episode, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. Your feedback fuels our mission to empower more women on their mindful balance journey. Until next time, take care and stay mindful, bye. - Thank you for listening to the Mindful Balance. The Mindful Balance is brought to you by Rachel Emma Nutrition, our editing and mixing engineers, Michael Plonner . Our theme song is "Good Feelings" by Bold Delic ence.
The information in this podcast does not substitute for medical or psychological advice and is intended for educational purposes only. Please consult a qualified health professional regarding health conditions or concerns before starting a new diet or health program.
Rachel Emma Nutrition LLC and the accompanying websites and social media platforms are not responsible for adverse reactions, effects, or consequences resulting from the use of any suggestions herein or procedures undertaken hereafter. (upbeat music)