Nourishing Your Body on a Busy Schedule
We are thrilled to welcome Allison Tallman to Revive Her to chat about fueling and nourishing your body while on a busy schedule.
Allison is a Registered Dietitian and metabolism expert with 8 years of experience helping women look and feel their best without dieting (and how to reset your metabolism, too!) With a passion for helping women feel more confident in their bodies, she has developed a unique 3-phased approach that focuses on mindset, mindfulness, and metabolism. Allison has a deep understanding of the connection between nutrition and overall well-being, Her holistic approach ensures that clients not only reach their weight and fitness goals but also develop a positive relationship with food and their bodies. If you’re ready to take control of your health and embrace a lifestyle that nourishes both your body and mind, Allison is here to support you every step of the way through her unique, personalized approach.
Skipping meals, settling for fast food, and overwhelming meal-prepping plans can leave us discouraged about our health journey. Haley and Noel ask Alli to reveal the secrets to a healthy mindset and metabolism. Alli encourages listeners that a healthy mind and body are achievable with small, incremental changes in your mindset and schedule.
What we dive into in this episode:
- Nourishing and fueling your body as a busy professional and mom
- How to reset your metabolism
- Building a healthy mindset around food
- Overcomplicating food and dieting
- Trendy diets that don’t work
- Scheduling meals
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I’m Starving like Marvin because I…
Skip Meals
When we have back-to-back meetings or don’t feel like we have time to eat or cook. We can sometimes have an all-or-nothing mentality. “If I don’t have something ready, I’m just not going to eat.” Remember, it’s better to eat something than nothing at all, even if it’s just a pieced-together meal standing in front of your fridge. It doesn’t have to be Instagram-worthy to fuel your body.
Get Hangry
We go to the kitchen hangry and desperate, so we spend all afternoon mindlessly snacking. When you’re being mindless you’re not eating to the point of fullness or making the best option for your body. You’re wrecking your metabolism when you snack all day, but also your energy levels.
Have a Fast Food Problem
We all drive to after-school activities and make a quick stop through McDonald’s. Every once in a while, this isn’t a problem; but when we stop after every ball game and dance practice, this becomes a habit. Fast food every now and then isn’t a bad thing, but habitually eating it isn’t the best health practice. If you do catch yourself in the fast food line, there are always healthier options to choose from.
Don’t Have Time
Fueling your body doesn’t mean meal prepping for ten hours on Sunday. It can look like your groceries being delivered, and 15 minutes with a sheet pan meal. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, start with one meal a day. Once you get into that routine, you can branch out to plan for other meals.
What Is A Meal Plan?
A meal plan is when you plan for the week ahead or the next few weeks and prepare what meals you will need. This can be helpful when grocery shopping and trying to prepare healthy, balanced meal options. The goal is not to actually prepare the actual food you’re going to eat, like with meal prepping, but to have an idea in mind of the meals you will be making. Gathering recipes, and ingredients, and making your family aware of what and when you’ll be eating are all great tools to make mealtimes less stressful for everyone.
Keep it Simple
We see you buying those little glass containers and all the fridge organizers for the perfect meal-prepping aesthetic. But we’re gonna let you in on a little secret, your meal planning doesn’t have to be picture-perfect. Don’t overcomplicate it.
Start with one meal at a time, and make it simple. We recommend recipes that are quick and easy like sheet pan meals, instapot meals, and stir-frys and crock pot meals. These recipes don’t take active cooking, meaning you’re not stirring or in the kitchen for an hour. It’s also less clean up too! We recommend looking for recipes that have five ingredients and only take thirty minutes.
What Can I Do?
The first step in solving any problem is analyzing the problem. We recommend thinking about your day-to-day. Ask yourself these questions:
Are you skipping lunch? Are you eating in the mornings? What are you doing now?
Ideally, you should be eating every four-ish hours. Most people eat lunch at noon and then they don’t eat til seven. That’s a long time to go without food. Food is what fuels our bodies and keeps those energy levels up. It also helps with our metabolism and hormones.
How Can I Do It?
Buy Food
You need food available. If there’s no food in your fridge you’re going to end up ordering food or settling for the bag of chips in your pantry.
Plan Ahead
Make your life a little easier when going to the grocery store, and meal plan for the upcoming week. Don’t get out your little glass containers just yet! We aren’t talking about meal prepping, we just need to look for easy recipes for the next week.
When planning, think about your schedule for the week. Will you be eating lunch at home every day? Or will you be taking it to the office? This will take some planning to pack and cook too. Find two to three recipes for the week, and then block off your calendar to make those meals too.
Time Block
Ok, so what is time blocking? Maybe you’ve heard about it for your work calendar, but we recommend blocking time to eat – just like if you were in a meeting. Even blocking just 15 minutes on your calendar for lunch every day will help keep your energy up for the rest of your work day.
Focus
We get it. You want to eat and work at the same time. We’ve all been in that time crunch where we work and eat. But it’s important to not multitask, so you can pay attention to your hunger, fullness, and how the food is making you feel.
How to Change Your Mindset?
Mindset is so important when it comes to fueling our bodies.
That’s why Allison has her three-phase approach: mindset, mindfulness, and metabolism.
Mindset Meaning
Mindset is the foundation of your health journey. Among busy women, there’s an unhealthy approach to food – it’s this all-or-nothing mentality. When you set foods as off limits, it’s a constant battle with yourself that leads to shame, guilt, and unhealthy binging or restricting. Building a healthier relationship and resetting your mindset is a game changer. No matter what your health goals are: weight loss, resetting hormones, bloating. Your mindset is the root of it all.
Mindfulness Meaning
Mindfulness just means we’re being self-aware. We’re looking at our lives and how food plays into them. There’s absolutely no judgment or shame attached to this. This is simply an observation of your relationship to the food you fuel your body with. We also want to be mindful about how the food we are eating makes us feel, and look for cues of fullness and hunger.
Metabolism Meaning
According to MedlinePlus’ Medical Encyclopedia, Metabolism refers to the physical and chemical processes in the body that convert or use energy. In short, our body uses food to give us the energy we need to keep on living. Different kinds of food produce different kinds of energy, leaving us feeling ready to take on the day or low and lethargic.
Are There Diet Trends We Should Avoid?
There are new fads every day but here are some general ones to avoid:
Why I Stopped Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting is trendy, but there’s no research that shows that intermittent fasting is good for women. Intermittent fasting studies are either small numbers in a short amount of time or it’s only men. Our hormones, body composition, everything is different about us. Therefore, intermittent fasting is not going to be as effective for us as it potentially could be for men.
Is Skipping Breakfast Bad?
Another trend is skipping breakfast – whether you’re saying it’s intermittent fasting or not. It’s so important to start your day with a high-protein breakfast, so focus on things like eggs, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, or a smoothie. Eating some type of protein to start your day is crucial for your metabolism. We know it’s a struggle to eat when you first wake up.
Not everyone can stomach a big breakfast, but you need to eat breakfast with protein. We aren’t saying as soon as you wake up you have to eat a bunch of eggs, but typically within an hour of waking up, you need to be eating something with protein.
If big meals aren’t your thing as soon as you wake up, think of things that would vibe with you in the morning. Maybe it’s not eggs? Maybe something lower volume that isn’t as filling may settle better. Think of things like a protein bar, greek yogurt, or even a smoothie that you can drink.
Whatever you decide, if we can eat within an hour of waking up, that will help to reset your metabolism and keep your energy levels high all day.
Are Carbs Bad?
We’ve all heard it, carbs and sweets are bad. Many women believe they can’t lose weight if they eat them. That’s a huge misconception perpetuated by diet culture and trendy diets like Weight Watchers. These diets make us view food as good or bad.
While you’re googling “how to cancel Weight Watchers,” let’s look at the facts. Carbs are good fuel for our bodies. They are our brain’s main source of energy, and contrary to popular belief, you can lose weight and still eat your favorite pasta and treats! You just have to think of your meals in the big-picture scheme of your health journey. Balanced eating with carbs, fats, and protein is the goal.
It can be overwhelming to think of where to start. We have to start somewhere versus getting stuck. Maybe we need to take small steps first. Smaller more manageable habits to start out. It is possible despite being busy.
It’s so important to make sure you’re nourishing and fueling your body to take care of your kids and business.
FAQs For My Girlies Who Skim
So, can I eat bread and still achieve a healthy weight? (And cake? Asking for a friend.)
In short, yes! Carbs and sugars are not the enemy. The goal is balanced healthy meals. A slice of cake or a bread stick isn’t going to make or break your health journey. It’s when these meals become over-indulgences and habits that carbs and sweets start to become a bigger problem.
I can’t meal prep every meal! I’m overwhelmed!
That’s totally fine! You don’t have to! We recommend starting with one meal that you plan. Let’s say it’s breakfast, and you start out with a smoothie, protein bar, and Greek yogurt, then you just interchange between those each day. That way, you have all the ingredients. It’s not the same boring breakfast every day, and now you’re in control of one meal a day. (The most important meal of the day!) You can do this – really!
Do I have to eat a full breakfast?
It’s so important to start your day with a high-protein breakfast, so focus on things like eggs, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, or a smoothie. Eating some type of protein to start your day is crucial for your metabolism. We know it’s a struggle to eat when you first wake up. Not everyone can stomach a big breakfast, but you need to eat breakfast with protein. We aren’t saying as soon as you wake up you have to eat a bunch of eggs, but typically within an hour of waking up, you need to be eating something with protein. Maybe it’s just a protein bar? Hey, that’s a start! The goal is to keep your energy consistent throughout the day. Fuel that body!
