Health Coach | Speaker | Writer | Welcome to my digital diary! I'm here to help you blend life & fitness to find your health & happy! Thank you for being part of my family & allowing me to add value to your journey!
It all starts with learning to love yourself & disassociating your worth with what you look like. I still have stretch marks, rolls, loose skin, & wrinkles.
My body has been all shapes and sizes! Transformation takes time!
I gained 10lbs when I started CrossFit at 31. I gained 15 when I started carnivore almost 3 yrs ago. Your body is meant to transform
For me, my body acceptance/neutrality started with mourning my own thinner self & my more “athletic” physique when I was training harder. You have to acknowledge & sit with these feelings 1st. Rest is absolutely necessary especially when it comes to healing. This was the toughest part of finally reaching my own body acceptance & realizing I was now in a different season of life.
I understand. It’s easy to find yourself romanticizing the times you’re physically at your lowest. Realize that physical low may also mean you’re at a mental low as well. My disordered body image, eating, & relationship with self exacerbated with the glorification of my weight loss. It fueled the fire to more disordered behaviors because you crave that validation.
It’s ok to feel all the feels & go thru the wheel of disgust. You have to get to sweet spot of self love regardless of your weight.
Some things I want you remember:
1.) It’s OK to have body goals & want to see what your body can do as long as it comes from a place of self love, not loathing. Make sure you’ve healed any imbalances, done your due diligence to eat enough food to function like a rock star & set yourself up for a successful body goal.
2.) Body positivity & acceptance doesn’t mean you use them as an excuse to eat & treat your body like a trash can. You are what you eat & we were meant to move. You are your habits.
3.) Abs don’t mean you’re healthy & having a few extra rolls don’t mean your unhealthy. We all look different. Chase health first. Choose the diet that works for you. Choose the workouts you love.
I lived the majority of my life misdiagnosed with IBS when I in fact had IBD Crohn’s.
Know the difference!
Ulcerative colitis involves the inner lining of the colon, while Crohn’s disease involves all layers of the intestine & can occur in both the small intestine & colon. Mine is specifically is affected in the right lower quadrant (around where your appendix is located).
These disorders affect the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, the area of the body where digestion takes place. Digestion affects every facet of your life including fat loss goals, performance goals, & just living every day life.
It can be paralyzing when you don’t know what to eat & are struggling with symptoms.
The diseases cause inflammation of the intestine & lead to ongoing symptoms/complications.
There is no known cause or cure for IBD, but fortunately there are many effective treatments to help control it, including diet & lifestyle. Carnivore saved my life.
If medications fail to control the symptoms of IBD, or if certain complications occur, surgery may be required.
There is no single diet or eating plan that will work for everyone with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.
Dietary recommendations with my clients are tailored for each individual, depending on what part of the intestines is affected, if they have IBS or IBD, specific body goals, lifestyle needs & preferences.
Swipe for all the cheat sheets on things that I learned, things that helped me improve symptoms, carnivore healing phases, symptoms, triggers, & supplements that were helpful! IG: https://www.instagram.com/p/CeeqJRiJLrv/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
I assure you there is light at the end of the tunnel!!
Sending you all the love & hugs & know that I understand I’ve been there too!
Client call question: Is eating 1,000 calories the same as eating 2,000 calories but burning 1,000 calories off during exercise?
A: NO. Not only are you lacking the calories needed to fuel your body appropriately to get the results you want, you’re also lacking in micronutrients, which your body needs to function at its best.
Let me point out a big issue: 1000 calories is not sustainable nor enough to sustain a toddler.
By eating so little your body begins to down regulate and fight against you, your metabolism drops, you lose muscle, your hormones begin to go wonky & the list goes on. Basically you create a dumpster fire for yourself & attain the dreaded #skinnyfat for many.
This is what happens when you don’t strength train, abuse cardio, & under eat, losing muscle & increasing body fat. You may lose weight but your physique looks nothing like the picture you have in your head.
I explained to my client It would be far easier & more effective to eat 2000 calories & train intentionally. We should set ourselves up for a successful fat loss cut by reverse dieting if we need to, construct a success routine, then shoot for a small deficit & reassess.
During my last mini cut I only reduced my calories by about 300-400. That’s it.
Let me reiterate we shouldn’t obsess over our fit trackers, earning or burning food.
A much better option to overtraining & under eating is to create a lower caloric deficit, stick to that for 2-3 weeks & then reassess.
The weight loss is slower, easier, more sustainable, more enjoyable, & life sucks a whole lot less
So if this sounds like you & you’re at a point where you’re no longer seeing progress & don’t know what to do, I’d love to help. Link for coaching options
I prefer a variety of meat, simply giving my body what it’s craving. Don’t care if it’s grass fed or grain fed. I prefer grain fed as far as taste, simply season with salt due to my sensitivities & Crohn’s. Season to taste however you’d like. I sprinkle the salt AFTER it’s cooked.
LOOSELY break up meat into 4-5 sections or “bars” & place in airfryer basket
Airfry, 12 minutes, 380, though the preheat. Every airfryer will be different.
Sprinkle salt to taste
TIPS & FAQ
You MUST use an airfryer for the crispy texture. Baking will not give you the same product. It will be dryer and not as crispy.
Do not pack tightly into patties, again the crispy texture is created from NOT packing the meat tightly.
You can melt 1 tbsp of bacon grease or beef tallow & drizzle on top of cooked meat or put slices of bacon on top of meat pieces in air fryer before you air fry for extra flavor & fat.
You can use the fat in the bottom of the basket as a “dip” or “sauce” &/or for added flavor & fat.
You can season with your favorite seasonings & use your favorite sauces. Go your own way, you don’t have to do it the way that I do.
I’m fortunate enough to be med free loving with Crohn’s. I’m an advocate of being EDUCATED & FLEXIBLE, eating foods that are nourishing, suit YOUR lifestyle & needs.
I’m a coach that helps you find your “happy.” I understand how living with gut issues, being overweight, or simply having a poor relationship with yourself paralyzes you.
I’m not a coach that’s gonna give you a specific meal plan, sell you sh*t that doesn’t work, or put on a façade that me or my life is perfect. Perfect doesn’t help anybody, remember that.
I’m gonna share my story & let you decide how to put your puzzle pieces together as your guide.
Specific Products did significantly help me. I don’t have a gallbladder either, fyi. I created an entire supplement guide just for you!PDF LINK IN IG BIO! I’m happy to answer questions via comments or dm.
So fueling like an athlete with special digestive needs & why digestion matters.
Here are my top tips living with gut issues as a fitnessor just like you! Swipe!
Why do I eat a meat based diet? — I’m sensitive to lectins, oxalates, high histamine, high fodmap foods & phytates. I wondered for years why I felt like poo after eating nut butters, high amounts of veggies, fruits, fiber, sweet potatoes, breads, & any nuts & seeds. Basically my body hates anything but coffee, gf alcohol, eggs, & meat.
Why I choose a diet based on animal foods
Majority of my calories are from the most nutrient-dense bioavailable foods
I LOVE & thrive off meat with no digestion issues.
Minimal fiber, meaning everything is easy to digest.
Low to no sugar, or highly palatable processed carb based foods. These are my biggest triggers when it comes to binging or basically eating like an a$$hole
Natural fats & plenty of protein. I’m fuller longer, don’t have energy crashes.
My body is more recovered, less inflamed, I eat more food & stay leaner with no binging. My workouts feel great & I simply do what I love. I modify my “carnivore” diet to my preferences. There is room for leniency, you are in charge of your adventure. I hope this helps you find your happy! Go crush it, Team!
I know I’m not the only one who has wondered this exact thing in times of hunger & juggling fat loss &/or physique goals…or playing the ole “macro Tetris”
Basic rule of thumb: if you hungry & you’re choosing to over eat, CHOOSE A LEAN (means lower fat) PROTEIN SOURCE. The higher the fat content, the higher your calories will be.
Carbohydrates typically affect your blood sugar the most.
This is also a reason higher protein carnivore & meat-based diets vs high fat are extremely effective in helping you achieve & maintain a lean, more muscular (athletic or “toned” as a term many of you use) physique.
Also a reason why fat cycling is effective. (which is similar to carb cycling for those who are familiar with carb cycling) It focuses on higher protein and helping you achieve a calorie deficit by lowering your fat on specific days. Basic science and math at the end of the day.
My favorite lean protein sources: Ground chicken Lean ground beef (90-93%) Cod Tilapia Shrimp Scallops Chicken breast
I hate tracking my food. – something I hear every day Let’s have a come to Jesus moment y’all… When you do “structure” “right,” the freedom follows with ease. Which means if things aren’t progressing the way you’d like chasing a specific goal you must gain self-awareness & data to help you make the correct adjustments. Once you do that & create a “structure” that serves you & your goals, they become second nature & aren’t viewed as rigidity anymore. Your habits & routine become part of you. Some things you had to do before you created your structure you may not have to do anymore, a.k.a. tracking. Too many people view “structure” as ubiquitously restrictive in a “bad” way. It’s not bad. Just like fasting isn’t bad or a dirty word unless you abuse it. They’re TOOLS. I get it, you be scrollin the gram & people are telling you you don’t need to track your food, or diet, or eat low carb, or drink, or eat meat, or are a vegetarian – whatever…. But what most of these people aren’t telling you, The ones that have found a solution that works for THEM is that they spent years: ➡️learning about nutrition, different diets, macros, calories, trigger foods, etc ➡️tracking their intake in some capacity ➡️unlearning self sabotaging habits & behaviors ➡️rewiring their eating & daily routine habits (most of us, me included, didn’t grow up with nutritional guidance) ➡️doing the inner work to build better habits, develop better awareness of their body’s signals, change their inner narrative, & spend time in multiple different nutritional “seasons” (maintenance, deficit, surplus), often multiple times “Eating whatever you want” looks easy for these people because they’ve done the work. The freedom I & they have NOW comes from the work we did years, decades prior. You learn thru making mistakes & having patience what actually works for your body. You LOSE the fear & you gain 2 things: 🧠knowledge 🙏self-trust So… you want the freedom? Put in the work. All things we learn when you work with me.
“You’re just too big to be a cheerleader, hon.” -cheerleading coach, middle school
“Pretty girls are in the front, you fit better in the back.” -a mom, childhood birthday party pictures
“Well, you’re just not polished enough.” -recruiter, job fair in college
“I’m sorry I cheated, I like you, it’s just, she was prettier.” -someone not even worth mentioning here
Naturally I’d be lying if a part of me didn’t want to tell these people of past chapters of my life they can suck it.
I’ll take the high road & use it to help y’all if you’ve ever struggled when someone has devalued you.
People will teach you how to love well by hurting you. They will teach you how to love yourself by not loving you back. Life will teach you evolution & growth through pain & stagnation.
Pay attention to the wisdom the Universe is trying to teach you. Gold is found sifting thru gravel & diamonds are created under pressure.
Hell, crispy airfryer #meatbars were discovered by me being late to work & literally throwing the shizzle my nizzle in the airfryer basket. Now we can’t live without them!
In my youth, I shouldn’t have taken these statements as a reflection of my worth, simply moved on, & not allowed a single encounter to take up so much energy in my heart & taint decades of my being with shame.
This world is made up of a plethora of different people with different priorities with different life situations all 50 shades of f*cked up.
You’re not alone, the difference is how you react to what life throws at you.
People who have broken my spirit have actually led me to having more empathy, more self worth & appreciation for who I am, & the desire to reach out to all of you because I have felt what a lack of human acknowledgment & compassion can do to a person.
Know that your feelings have a real place, & this life can be so much more beautiful & grander if we let love & optimism fully into our hearts.
The first time I set a “fitness goal, “I didn’t even know fitness goals were a thing. I just wanted to lose as much weight as possible.
I started out doing videos at home in my room. I swapped two and three portions of food at dinner for a salad and then walked a mile on the treadmill instead of sitting and watching TV.
I started working out and setting more intentional exercise goals in the 7th grade. I was the heaviest I’d ever been. I was 160lbs and barely 5 foot tall.
Me at my heaviest
Kids were extremely cruel. They called me names. I will never forget the kids who were mean to me, their names, or the way they made me feel.
And I took that as a life lesson into my adulthood that I would be aware of how I made other people feel because the way other people made me feel made a huge impression on the trajectory of my life and perception of myself.
The imprint you make on other people’s lives is truly your legacy. It’s not the number in your bank account, what you look like, your size, achievements or how many titles you have before or after your name.
“To live in the hearts of those we love is to never die.”
Hazel Gaynor
I was 11 years old feeling trapped in an overweight, changing body I didn’t recognize or understand. All I wanted was to be accepted and loved.
As I spoke before my body image issues started at the age of 8 and I had already absorbed the message that being skinny was desirable, powerful even.
If I could just shrink myself down to the “right size”, I’d ace all my classes and win the hearts of all the boys and the popular girls would want to be friends with me.
Although more intentional exercise goals are a positive thing in the right dose, I noticed all I wanted to do was skip meals and exercise more.
My lunch used to be a handful of Ritz crackers and one small snack size cottage cheese container. Dessert, some sugar-free Jell-O.
In retrospect, at 40 years old, it’s something I can only guess was an attempt to exert control over my body, life, & other people in an attempt at “happiness.”
Throughout my school years, college and even when I married early at 22 years old, I struggled with my body image and self-confidence.
I skipped many social functions to exercise and avoid eating. With all my gut issues I didn’t know what to eat without causing some sort of flare up anyways. I resorted to diet pills and taking shots of cold medicine to make myself sleep so I wouldn’t eat.
I figured out when I binged, ice cream was the easiest to indulge because it was easy to throw up. I’d down 2-3 gallons of ice cream in one sitting.
I missed the beauty of exercise as a celebration of what my body could do & the simple love & joy it brought to my life.
I couldn’t see the ways I was hurting myself, pushing myself too hard, eating too little, and denying myself basic care, pleasures, and missing out on making memories with friends and family because of my addictions.
This pattern continued even into my early 30s, even after I shifted my focus away from being purely about aesthetics and losing weight towards performance goals like CrossFit, running, spartan races and lifting.
I knew I had the heart of an athlete and so much potential but why did I always feel like a total failure?
The answer arrived when I broke up with aesthetic or performance goal setting, at least in the way I’d been doing it.
I started focusing more on improving my health, especially my gut health which I struggled with my entire life.
I stopped trying to fit into a box and eat a certain diet because certain athletes ate that way or my favorite Instagram account ate that way.
I started looking at goals as destinations on the horizon, an invitation to do better because now I knew better.
Goals aren’t a finish line or a final destination. There’s simply an invitation.
I started choosing workouts because I loved doing them and they made me feel amazing whether it was running, bodybuilding, spartan races, or CrossFit.
I started eating food that made me feel amazing and I took the knowledge I had gained working as a nutritionist to make smarter adjustments and decisions with things like quality, quantity, macros and the types of foods I was eating.
We’ll talk about food & gut specifics later on in the book.
I’ve been meat based or ”carnivore” for almost 3 years. Outside of coffee & occasional social alcohol, my diet is 99% comprised of meat and eggs. I haven’t had a full blown Crohn’s flare since I started this way of eating.
And in the process of learning, experimenting, and authentically stepping into myself, my greatest fears since childhood, gaining weight and failure, fell away.
I got stronger, leaner, and healthier. I can confidently say at 40 years old I am the healthiest and happiest I’ve ever been.
This hasn’t been a linear journey, I’ll remind you it takes a long time.
Simply sit back and enjoy it. It’s taken over 10 years to build the physique you see today. It took me 4 years of intentional healing and doing things I didn’t want to do like eat more food and gain weight to gain my health back.
I tell everyone, especially my clients, any weight that you gain in the process of gaining back your HEALTH is weight you needed to gain.
And what I’ve learned throughout this process is that I can accept that sometimes I must get lost to find what I was looking for all along.
“Lost & found are from the same box. Remember this when you don’t know where you belong.”
Ever wasted your money on a food tolerance test to try to fix your gut issues?
Hi it me, too.
There are numerous food intolerance tests available like blood, breath, & hair tests.
I found in my experience it didn’t tell me what I already didn’t know, & many were inaccurate.
Quick tips in a shot glass with Coach K
What saved me was tracking food & journaling symptoms. Things that caused problems I was overlooking were things like lack of sleep, combinations of foods like dairy, fruit, & veggies, & eating too fast.
The only way to accurately diagnose a food intolerance is via elimination of that food, your symptoms dissipating, then coming back when you reintroduce.
A reason a meat-based diet is great for people with gut issues & autoimmune condition is it eliminates the majority of triggers & allows your body/gut to heal which helps you lose body fat & achieve a “toned” lean healthier physique.
I discuss how to heal your gut in my Meat & Macros macros guide which you can find the link in my IG bio along with Coaching FAQs.
Talk to someone quantified if you’re not sure what to do. I promise you there is light at the end of the tunnel!
**Warning** This may be sensitive, triggering information for some.**
It’s officia! This is the beginning of my journey as an author. You guys have been telling me for years to write a book about my life…so I’m keeping my promise. Manifesting this sh*t.
I decided to just. start. writing. Here are some bits & pieces from, Confessions of a Sick, Overweight, Broke B*tch.
Enjoy, I hope these nuggets can resonate in a way you need.
How bout that cat shirt tho? 🙂
I remember it well, it was a Saturday morning. I snuck an unopened package of Girl Scout Tagalong Cookies into my bedroom. I ate the entire box while everyone slept.
Who would’ve known the gates of addiction, self sabotage, sickness, obesity, & decades of debt & relationship debacles would follow.
My body image issues, food addiction, gut dis-ease, & disordered eating started at the age of 8 with the opening of a package of girl scout cookies.
I could put away more food than my father did at dinner.
I’ll never forget my mom (bless her heart she meant well) saying, “If you keep eating like that you’ll get as big as a barn.”
I grew up on a family farm in small town USA, Indiana, raising crops & beef cattle. We ate good y’all. ALL the meat, potatoes, home-cooked baked goods, fried spam & bologna. ALL the down home country sh*t.
I am the oldest of 3. I have 2 younger brothers, both “skinny” growing up, I was always the “fat” one. There was a reason I played catcher in softball & threw shot put in track. You wouldn’t think it lookin at my 5’1, 105lb frame today at 40 years old.
Current me 🙂
I remember crumpling the package of cookies under my bed, hiding it in shame. I curled up in pain, stomach so full & nauseous from all the sugar. At that time I willed myself not to throw up. I was swollen, sick, ashamed, & unaware of the drug addiction that had only just begun.
“What have I done? What would my parents say or anyone else if they ever found out?” I thought.
Huge transformations mentally & physically thru my 40 years!
Then the binging & purging began as I got older.
I discovered I could make myself throw up & “undo” what I had done. I could workout more. I could restrict more so I could enjoy my binges more & eat MORE.
F*cked up, right?!
The thing is the “monster” inside of you doesn’t see it that way.
It’s like you have two personalities like an angel and devil on your shoulders fighting for your attention.
Things I used to tell myself, “This must be what all the skinny & popular girls do at school, right?! Because I have to look like them to be loved by all the boys & be successful. I’m just not trying hard enough. Push harder. Oh, you gained 2lbs, great job, Katie, no food for you for 2 days.”
Sound familiar?
As painful as it is reliving these nightmares, I’m writing this for YOU.
I know I’m not alone and I want you to know that someone else gets it.
I know what it feels like to be so full you’re sick, but you can’t stop eating.
I know what it feels like to be lying on the floor with a sore throat, reflux, & puffy eyes telling yourself, “This is the last time” & also knowing you’re full of bullsh*t.
I know what it feels like to feel like you’re not even in your body when a binge is happening. The sugary taste of all the foods you’ve denied yourself & deemed “bad” are orgasmic, the high of knowing what you’re about to do is exhilarating & shameful at the same time. The feeling of letting food control you & sabotage every relationship & facet of your life.
I know what it feels like to feel hopeless. Suffering with gut issues and not knowing what to eat because everything makes you bloated, constipated, & miserable to the point you’re a shell of yourself.
I know what it feels like to live in an abusive relationship with yourself and others, seeking validation through outside sources like relationships, controlling your body, excessive drinking, and overspending to the point you’re over $40,000 in debt. You feel like you’re drowning in a cesspool of your own creation.
The scary thing was I thought I was fit & healthy in the left photo, but I remember what hell I was putting my body thru trying to chase a constant smaller version of myself. I still thought I was fat. Thank God for CrossFit, it made me realize what I was doing was wrong & I needed to eat MORE! Strong not Skinny 🙂
Binging became something I did regularly, pushing the boundaries of “full” further & further.
My memories of elementary & middle school are saturated with the fact that I was fatter than all of my friends.
I had a friend jokingly poke my waist & make a joke about “pinching an inch.” My classmates ridiculed me & called me heifer & lamb chop because I had frizzy curly hair, full cheeks, was a farm kid, & bigger than everyone else.
It became a recurring nightmare until my first bad break up in high school.
I was so emotionally distraught I just quit eating. I lost 15lbs in a matter of 3 weeks before school started.
I didn’t even have the energy to show my calves at the Indiana State Fair. I did, but I thought I was gonna pass out.
Rub some dirt in it right?! Suck it up. Farm kids were raised to be tough. We weren’t allowed to give excuses.
I remember my mom telling me she was gonna put me in the hospital if I didn’t eat.
Guess what happened when I went back to school 15lbs lighter?
All the kids magically loved me.
I was thinner, I was praised for my weight loss & finally got attention!
BOOM!
That moment right there was the pivotal moment I believed in order to be loved, successful, & worthy, I needed to be as thin as possible.
“Bare bones, b*tch, that’s our goal. Don’t f*ck this up.” That’s what I told myself.
At 40 I finally feel whole, happy, & peaceful with my being.
I’m grateful for a meat-based & “carnivore” way of eating. It broke my addiction & healed me in ways physically & mentally I never thought could be mended.
I’m not writing this for pity or attention, I’m writing this for YOU. The ones still stuck in this cycle looking for magic & quick fixes.
Fall in love with your journey & slow down, it’s a long one but well worth the work & effort & patience. YOU ARE WORTH IT! You are worthy just because you exist. And you are fabulous at whatever weight & size you are your healthiest.
Love the skin you’re in, it’s the only home you have forever!
Book to be continued 😉
Things that helped me break my binge eating
They may seem small, but these lil tips make a huge impact on your healing. No need for perfection here, but it does take making & KEEPING commitments to yourself.
I think I can speak for all of us who struggled or are currently struggling with 50 shades of a fuxked up relationship with food & exercise.
Like I spoke about earlier, I chased bare bones, wore restriction like a badge, & was abusing carbs like a drug (let alone with my Crohn’s, my body couldn’t digest & utilize carbs & fiber like a normal human being. I was in agony).
The disordered eating & carbs, they’re like a high for us, like a drink to an alcoholic, or a high like that first kiss from that boy you’ve loved for so long.
Some signs of a disordered relationship w/food & exercise:
Refusing to eat foods you love due to fear of weight gain.
Avoiding social situations, anxiety.
Compensating by “working food off,” “earning”, or using food as a “treat/reward.”
Obsessing about food, tracking, exercise.
Addiction to specific foods.
Not being able to moderate specific foods like carbs, sugar, hyperpalatable & caloric foods like bacon, cheese, high fat meats, etc.
Letting the weight on your scale or missing a work out ruin your day.
Obsessive body checking in the mirror.
Constantly seeking validation from things &/or others.
Falling into the restrict, binge, self hate cycle. Yo-yo dieting.
There’s so many more but the above were biggies for me.
Tips that helped me:
Find your triggers (food, stress, emotional situations, comparing, etc) write them down & journal or talk to yourself about why you react to them the way you do. You have to gain self-awareness.
Eat regularly & eat enough for your goals & activity. Binging comes from overly restricting. It’s your body’s survival mechanism. It affects you physiologically & psychologically.
Eat larger meals with plenty of protein & healthy fats. Carbs & highly palatable, calorically dense foods seem to be a big trigger for most people.
Determine if you are an abstainer or a moderator. Abstainer’s typically do better with food rules, also get the trigger foods out of your house.
Eat with friends & family. STAY BUSY to avoid emotional eating or boredom eating. Get out of the house, WALK, clean, call someone, read, watch a movie, color.
Eat mindfully, chew your food, slow down, portion food on a plate, avoid tracking & weighing yourself if those are triggers.
On the other hand, tracking & weighing can also help some of us that have lost our true hunger & satiety cues. Often we can’t physically tell when we’re full, so tracking will give us the data for us to make decisions about proper portion sizing.
Wear comfortable clothes & stop body checking in the mirror. Get new clothes that fit & are flattering. You wear your clothes, they don’t wear you! Stop keeping smaller items in hopes you’ll fit into them again. I find it just causes more disordered behavior & thinking.
Strive to be self aware rather than judgmental. You are simply on a fact-finding mission to uncover patterns of feelings & behavior so you can work to change them.
Journal! I cannot tell you how many epiphanies I have had while journaling about food. You don’t have to sit and write out a lengthy entry, brain dump. I’ll just make a list of what I’m feeling & thinking, not worrying about how it sounds or if I use proper sentences or grammar. It releases emotional weight. Use the prompt, “What is the feeling I am trying not to feel?”
Remove your food triggers & get on a meal plan that works for you. For me, this was the carnivore diet. I have an addiction to carbs. I also do not digest them well, causing physical harm. I cannot stress enough how important it is to eat enough food for proper body function & activity. You should be eating at your maintenance caloric levels the majority of the time. We shouldn’t be chronically dieting. It will really help cut down on overeating & binging & help you relearn portioning & true hunger/fullness cues.
Opt out of others’ ideas of health, beauty, & diet culture. Cut the toxicity out of your life & monitor what you consume. This means relationships, social media, your environment, what you read & watch – it’s not simply just food. I remind myself:
One, there are things that are easy for me that are difficult for other people.
Two, people generally share successes & highlights, but not the effort or failed attempts that lead up to them.
Three, I am making progress doing what works for me.
Start prioritizing sleep! We NEED sleep, 7-9 hrs/night. It not only affects you cognitively, but physically. When we don’t get enough sleep, it throws off our hunger & satiety hormones, leptin & ghrelin, making us hungrier & typically crave carbs, sugar, & high fat foods. Getting enough sleep is as important as diet & exercise in fat loss. People who get enough sleep not only physically are healthier but also cognitively make better choices.
If you do binge or overeat, focus on moving forward. One of the single biggest things (other than the carnivore diet) that helped me was not responding to a binge by restricting the next day. Go back to your normal meal schedule, otherwise, you’re stuck in the restrict & binge cycle AGAIN.
My Crispy Airfryer Meat Bars are LIFE! I have an Instant Vortex 6qt airfryer from Target, also on Amazon- Link in IG Bio under Amazon Favorites. I cook about 1-2 lbs of meat at a time, usually 85-90% ground beef & Perdue Ground Chicken, Airfry, 380, 12 minutes!
Seek therapy &/or help from a coach or practitioner. I have a lot of difficult conversations with my therapist. When it comes to conflict & relationships, I’m an avoider. I hate talking about difficult topics, I hate conflict, I feel angry & anxious when I do. But the way to get rid of a monster’s power is to shine the flashlight in the closet and see it for what it is. Talking about a negative thing gets rid of any power it has over you. A surprising thing about therapy is that every time I tell my therapist something I’ve been too embarrassed to tell anyone before, she tells me how normal it is & how it’s in a cause & effect relationship with other things in my life & absolutely can choose again. Amen, right?!
Keep a compliment journal, write affirmations on post-its & put them on your bathroom mirror, write out positive intentions in your scheduler everyday, list things you’re grateful for every morning. I even save a board of inspiration on Pinterest when I’m feeling low vibe. I always feel better after reading through!
Be compassionate with yourself when you’re not perfect. Recovery is not linear. Think about how you’re feeling & how to redirect instead of punishing yourself for feeling & thinking certain things. Its like punishing & rewarding yourself with food & exercise. Food is fuel, not a reward. Exercise is a celebration of what your body can do, not punishment. Another reason I loather the word & use of “cheat day.” You’re only cheating yourself.
If you’re hungry, eat, if you’re not, don’t. We do not need to over complicate things. There is also no one-size-fits-all to anything in life, especially food & fitness. You don’t have to choose a specific diet camp, fitness modality, fasting regimen, etc. Do what feels good & authentic to YOU!
