Rethink Your Tomorrow

It’s the end of yet another year that changed you inside and out. Some changes were favourable and others not so much. Some habits evolved and some reappeared after a hiatus. Perhaps you added new habits into your routine. Or maybe you re-imagined and reinvented your way of eating. But did these stick or did life crowd them out?

Okay, you are on the cusp of 2023. Are you planning which amazing “new” diet you’ll follow to lose weight in 2023? If you’re like many of my clients, you make the same New Year’s resolution every January 1st. Perhaps you’ve resolved that this is the year that you’ll lose that extra padding and of course, keep it off.

Did you plan for “life” in this ambitious resolution? You may be saying to yourself why would I do that because well, life is just that life.

Life is what disrupts your resolve and usually what derails you from reaching your goals.

Typical Pattern

All starts out well — you eat the food permitted on your “new diet plan”, your mood improves, your motivation shifts for the better. You are filled with more energy and optimism. Wahoo! You’ve knocked it out of the park. But wait…the novelty begins to wane. Life with its stresses, interruptions and strains start to collide with your plan. And before you know it, you find yourself slipping and allowing non-diet supporting foods back in — just a little. But a little leads to one more piece or bite and perhaps still another until well, you’ve eaten way more than you planned “off program.” Oh, what the heck, I’ve blown it for today and you eat whatever you fancy for the rest of the day with the plan to “restart tomorrow.”

Reality check — life and lifestyle choice/habit (new eating plan) have a head-on collision. And with that collision, old habits win again. Your willpower flounders. You beat yourself up — you know the negative self-talk.

Does this scenario plague your New Year year after year? It did mine for decades upon decades. Every January 1st, I’d say I will lose 10 pounds and fit this item of clothes again. And every February, I’d failed to keep going. Until…

Yep, there is until I decided to change my perspective from losing weight to healing first. After 10 months of failing upwards in 2020, I got the intestinal methanogen overgrowth (IMO — formerly SIBO-C) under control and guess what, those extra ten pounds fell off! So for the last two years, I can honestly say I am at a body size that I am content to live with into my retirement years.

Changing Your New Year

Yes, the yearly battle is real. You are not alone.

According to Dr Rangan Chatteree, author of Feel Better in 5, states that “most health plans are based on the common but incorrect assumption that you can make sweeping and last changes to your health by relying solely on willpower and motivation.” (p 10) Unfortunately, willpower and motivation wane in time, so resolutions wane and fail far too often. However, both willpower and motivation are important to get you started.

So what can you do differently to make 2023 different? The year you actually realize your health plans.

You’ll notice I didn’t call it a goal. If you what to know more of why, check out these blog posts, “No Finish Line” or “Finish or Not Part 2.”

First, realize that your busy modern lifestyle is the root that has lead to the point you find yourself today feeling overburdened, overwhelmed, overweight, and perhaps too tired to care. However, change is possible. You can adopt an eating protocol like low carb/keto/ketovore or even carnivore can become a permanent lifestyle change rather than a weight lose goal that is met and discarded.

Next, it’s time reframe how you want your plan to look. If you consistently make good choices you will end up regaining health and wellness. However, if you repeatedly make poor choices, you will struggle and end up staying sick and eventually diseased with something that may shorten your life. What you do every single day defines you and your lifestyle!

So what in your day-to-day actions can you change to realize your plan to renewing your health, dropping the extra weight/fat or improving how you feel? Each and every small step or adjustment you implement can alter and stack upon another “new” habit to create a rhythm of repeated patterns (yep, habits). As the habits are incorporated into what you do daily, the rhythm removes decision making until you just do and they become a part of you and your lifestyle.

Forget the pills, potions, and packaged “keto” foods. Look to real whole natural no-label foods found along the perimeter of most grocery stores for your health healing. These foods are the ones most likely to make a bigger overall difference. True, you may need to find recipes, learn how to prepare and make great meals, but that is very doable.

5 Easy Steps

• Choose health-supportive foods usually found along the perimeter of the grocery store
• Lower your carbohydrate intake to reduce inflammation and any imbalance of fuel in your bloodstream — best place to start depends where you are starting
• Plan 2-3 meals/recipes per week — plan, shop, prep, enjoy then repeat
• Look at your macros if you want to make bigger changes to your diet: protein is a target, enough fat to satiate/feel full, and limit carbs (keep low)
• Move your body as you’re motivated to help with immune, stamina and general wellbeing

Other Food for Thought

Be kind to yourself. If one day or one meal is a wash, get right back on track with the very next bite you take. You may need extra support and encourage and that’s where I can help as a certified keto-adapted keto/carnivore coach. I offer education, support, direction, coaching and of course, accountability to achieve your personal wellness goals.

So do you need help? Ask for it. You don’t need to do this journey alone — community matters. Dr Annette Bosworth explains in her books and courses the importance of mirror neurons.

Your health is NOT a destination. It is a journey with bumps and hills that you will need to navigate around and over. This journey to wellness is not linear either. This journey winds and turns. As Chatteree states, “Small, regular habits hold far more sway over our health than large, occasional activities.” (p 22) So think, baby steps, bite-sized movement toward your desired outcome of improved health.

I often remind my clients that you don’t have to fit into a box that announces “I’m keto!” Your version of keto/low carb is unique to you, your life and your lifestyle choices. I offer a framework and together we customize to create your personalized version of how and what you eat.

Discovery Chat

You’ve decide that you’ll end this year differently, right? And you’re looking for a keto coach with a strong nutritional background. Then email Brenda and book your free Discovery Chat to plan your most amazing year ever. How? By starting today and planning to make a different move than any previous year.