When You Feel Too Busy For Weight Loss [Ep. 141]

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This is the Eat Well Think Well Live Well podcast.

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I am Lisa Salisbury and this is episode 141.

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When you feel too busy for weight loss.

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Welcome to eat well.

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Well, the podcast for busy women who want to lose weight without constantly counting, tracking, or stressing over every bite.

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I'm Lisa Salsbury, a certified health weight loss and life coach, and most importantly, a recovered chronic dieter here.

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You'll learn to listen to your body and uncover the reasons you're reaching for food.

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When you're not truly hungry, freeing you to focus on a healthier, more fulfilling approach to eating.

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Hello and welcome back to The Eat Well Think Well Live Well podcast.

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Today we are talking about something I know many of you struggle with, and that is staying consistent with weight loss when life is so busy.

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If you've ever thought, I just don't have time for this right now, or I'll start when things calm down.

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This episode is for you because the truth is waiting for the perfect time is keeping you stuck.

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With the start of April.

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I feel like it's the downhill to the end of the school year, which I feel like can be even busier than the holiday season.

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There's everything from end of school band shows to AP testing for your bigger kids.

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Plus all the awards, nights and ending parties and bake sales.

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I know I was trying to make a list of all the things that I've done at the end of the school year, over the years, and it seems endless.

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Plus the pressure to be quote, ready for summer.

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This can be a tricky time and you feel really busy today.

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I wanna show you how to shift some of your mindsets.

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And build some consistency.

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Even if like me, this can be one of your busiest seasons.

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So get ready, because I've got a lot of little ideas in this episode.

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So first I wanna talk about the all or nothing trap.

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So many women believe that to lose weight, they need to be.

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All in like tracking every bite, working out daily, prepping every meal from scratch, packing your lunch, and especially following that exact right meal plan, whatever that currently is for the trends.

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But here's what happens.

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Life gets busy.

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And stress happens, schedules change, and when you can't do it perfectly, you end up doing nothing at all.

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And I've seen this in clients and stories they've told me, especially from before we worked together.

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It's a lot of the like, well, things went wrong and I threw my hands up in the air and I was like, I guess I can't do this.

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I've heard that story time and time again.

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Um, I've also seen it myself many times I've been there, so don't think I'm on a pedestal here.

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I know how this is.

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It's one of the reasons why I do this work, because I've been there instead of thinking I have to do everything right or it's not worth it.

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Try.

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What's the smallest thing I can do today to support my health?

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This is of course something we've talked about a lot.

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You and I, if you've been listening for any length of time, you know I'm all about taking these small actions that add up, let lifestyle change, take the time it needs to take.

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Don't try to overhaul things in one go.

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Here's some examples of some small things you might try to do.

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Add five grams of fiber to your day, not to every meal.

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We're talking small like to your day.

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This could be literally one pear, one add one pear to your day, or a smear of avocado to your sandwich.

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Avocados are shockingly high in fiber.

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I.

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Um, you could add a hundred steps to your average step count per day.

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So look at whatever fitness tracker or pedometer you might be using.

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Get your average for the week or even for last month, and add just a hundred steps to that.

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That's your new step goal for every day this week.

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Um, you might focus on just one meal.

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Maybe you wanna dial in just your breakfast this week or this month, so try several different ones to find your a few go-tos.

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Something that has protein, at least 30 grams to start the day is what I like.

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Of course, that's dependent on your current weight, your goal weight, but that's a good round number to shoot for if you don't have an idea otherwise.

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Um, so yeah, 30 grams of protein and eight or so grams of fiber for breakfast.

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It's satiating feels like you don't need to eat again for three to four hours.

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Finding that go-to breakfast or maybe two or three of them and getting that dialed in is a great small action to start with.

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That can take, um, a some time, like let that take a couple of weeks or even a whole month to get that really dialed in.

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Maybe your small thing is trying a new vegetable every week for this month.

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So that's four new vegetables this month.

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I think I've mentioned this, but I tried eggplant in Ouie for the first time in my entire life, and I'm almost 50 years old and I have never eaten eggplant.

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So I've had it a couple ways now and I'm not like in love with it, but I'm glad I tried it.

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It was like a new vegetable and I'm like, okay.

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I tried that and I definitely could eat that roasted ratatouille that I made.

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I definitely could eat that.

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Again, like many times it's definitely going in the rotation, but that gives you some ideas for some small actions.

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This is what I'm talking about, with small actions to take or to add onto notice that none of them were like, cut out this.

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Big thing.

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Why don't you try a week without sugar like you can, you can do that, but that's not in the small things category, right?

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So I'd love to hear some of your small actions you're going to try.

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So feel free to leave those in the comment section on the Instagram post for this episode, or you can always DM me as well.

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And if you need ideas for other small things, definitely, um, let me know.

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Okay.

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Second thing to do once we're out of this, kind of all or nothing trap, is to define what consistency is.

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Weight loss, especially for someone who's busy, isn't about being perfect.

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It's about being consistent.

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A huge mistake I see is thinking that consistency is equal to doing the same thing every single day.

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That's not real life, that's not possible, right?

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You, you can't be a cookie cutter every single day.

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Some days are smooth, some days are chaotic.

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A busy day won't look the same as a calm day for the way that you are taking care of yourself, and that's okay.

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Weekdays look different than week weekends.

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If your version of consistency.

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Only works on the quote unquote good days.

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It's not actually sustainable.

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So consistency means showing up for yourself even when things don't go as planned.

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And it also means showing up for the next thing that you do.

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So consistency isn't just about doing the same things every single day.

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Um, it's not about doing it all, it's just.

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Continuing to keep going even in the small ways.

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So think about like brushing your teeth.

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You don't stop brushing your teeth just because you forgot one night.

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You just do it again the next day.

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You don't overcompensate.

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By brushing 10 times the next day you just get back to your normal routine.

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So this is why I use the very next bite technique.

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Consistency means.

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Doing what you can today, even if it's a rough one, and then making your very next bite right on plan.

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So that means if you overate today, if you missed your protein goals today, if you didn't eat a single vegetable tomorrow, your next bite is right on plan.

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There's lots of versions of this.

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James.

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Clear said, missing once is an accident.

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Missing twice is the start of a new habit.

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Anyone can have a bad performance, a bad workout, or a bad day at work, but when successful people fail, they rebound quickly.

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And um, that's the end of the quote.

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But that's, I think, a good example of what consistency is.

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Obviously, you're gonna have a miss.

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Those things happen, but consistency means that you get back to what you really want for yourself as soon as you can.

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So it's not perfection every day, but it's consistently making yourself a priority so that when you have a miss of, or just your whole day goes up in flames, you don't wait for Monday or the start of a new month to get back on track.

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so I jotted down five things that you can do to get out of this all or nothing mindset and create this kind of consistency, especially when you're busy, because I just don't want you to be overwhelmed.

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I want you to start changing your life in small, simple ways.

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So first, focus on what you can control.

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You may not control your schedule 100%.

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You can't control your kids getting sick or the weather not cooperating with your run schedule.

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But you can control the small choices like adding protein to your meals even when you're not making them yourself.

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Making sure to.

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To order in such a way at a restaurant that you're prioritizing that protein or fiber, drinking water.

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Choosing water over other beverages, moving your body even for five minutes.

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Get flexible with your workouts if you need to.

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Don't skip them because you don't have a full 45 minutes you originally planned.

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If you don't have time to pack your lunch like you planned.

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Order something that would be similar to what you would have packed.

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So this is just all focusing on what you can control so you can control what you order.

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Even if you don't have time to make a lunch and you go out to lunch, you can still control.

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What you're eating.

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Um, number two, make decisions ahead of time.

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This is huge when your busy decision fatigue is so real.

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Take a moment in the morning or the night before to decide what you're going to eat, when you'll move, and how you're gonna care for yourself.

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That's an extension on the 24 hour practical plan.

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You know it, you love it, you know, I love making a plan for your meals ahead of time, but there's just so many other decisions that you can make ahead of time as well.

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The less thinking required in the moment, the easier it is to follow through.

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The big reason that we do this is because your higher human brain is the part of the brain that can think ahead.

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And make good plans.

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Your lower brain, that instinctual habitual part, the um, you know, you've heard me call it the animal brain, the toddler brain.

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That part of your brain doesn't really think about your future.

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It only thinks about the right now.

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And so when we're using that part of the brain to make our decisions, whether that's for our food or for our movement or for our general self-care activities, it's not necessarily.

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The, the best part of our brain to be using.

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So when you make decisions ahead of time, you are more able to access your future self And what that part really wants, because that's the part of your brain, your higher brain that can plan and think about the future.

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So that's why it's so valuable to use that part of the brain to make your decisions.

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Um, number three, use simple repeatable habits instead of overcomplicating things, rely on a few small habits that you can return to again and again.

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Maybe it's that go-to breakfast that keeps you full, a quick walk after dinner or a journaling practice to check in with yourself.

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Obviously this is a shout out to my go-to meals guide that I'm sure you already have.

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But if not, check the show notes for that link.

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But also having habits for how you make your grocery lists, for example, can be a huge time saver.

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Anything you can put on autopilot with a habit for your self-care is helpful.

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That's, um.

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Actually funny though, since I'm always telling you to keep your eating habits, to keep your eating out of habit mode.

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The difference here is eating when you aren't hungry out of habit, like when you grab a snack because you're getting in the car only out of habit, not because you are actually hungry.

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Or, um, like habitually snacking while watching tv.

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I think you get what I mean here, the difference between habits that are helpful and the ones that are interfering with your ability to stop overeating.

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So, I want you to think about habits you can incorporate that are, again, small, repeatable, that don't overcomplicate things that help you stay on track.

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Number four, try keeping your progress visible.

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So whether it's tracking workouts or checking in with how food makes you feel, or setting small daily goals, seeing your progress builds momentum.

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So this is the concept of sticker charts.

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Sticker charts work for kids.

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Because human brains love accumulation and adult brains don't really get over that.

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If you find yourself to be someone who likes this and responds to this, consider creating a habit tracker in your journal or use a Habit Tracker app that allows you to, you know, check things off.

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You can also do something as simple as a marble jar.

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And you add a marble to the jar every time you go on a walk or every day that you reach your protein goal.

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Don't just add a marble for the quote unquote perfect days, but just for a small goal you might be trying to work on for the month.

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So keeping your progress visible is not, don't, don't hear me saying like, taking progress pictures or um, measurements or things like that.

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It's not so much about the way your body looks as the.

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Accumulation of those habits.

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And this is something you can do even when you're busy.

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You, at the end of the day, you're like, Ooh, did I reach my protein goal marble in the jar, or did I drink all my water today?

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Check that habit off.

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Give that, you know, a, a red star or whatever is the accumulation there for your habit chart.

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Um, okay.

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Number five is check in, not check out.

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So instead of ignoring your body when things get stressful and busy, I want you to just take one minute I 30 seconds.

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If you don't have a whole minute to ask, what do I actually need right now?

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This small pause can prevent emotional eating and reactive choices.

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Check in.

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Don't check out.

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Listen, weight loss should fit into your life.

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You shouldn't have to create a life centered around losing weight.

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I did this for many years.

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My days were controlled by what fad diet I was on.

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I ignored the fact that small consistent actions would lead to big results over time.

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I always wanted to do the big overhaul diet.

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And you know what those crash diets.

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They did give me big results.

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I would lose weight the first couple weeks and I was like, oh, it's working.

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But then I had no basis of habit change or real lifestyle changes to actually keep that going.

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So stop waiting for more time and start working with the time you already have.

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I really don't subscribe to the notion that everyone has the same 24 hours in a day because my day looks completely different than your day.

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And I know because my day now with one singular teenager left at home looks very different than when I had all four kids in elementary and middle school.

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I've been meeting up with a friend for swimming workouts and she brings three kids to the childcare at the gym.

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When we're there, I bring just myself, it takes her way more time to get to that same gym class and get home than it does for me.

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It takes her way more time to get lunch done with three kids.

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And feed herself.

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I just have to feed me and I work from home.

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So I have different demands on my time than my clients who are working long hours or have to leave quite early for long commutes or that travel for work.

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I've had clients with all of those situations.

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We all have differing amounts of time in that same 24 hours, but rather than wish you had more time or thinking about other people that you know.

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Have more or less time than you do or have different lives, start working with the time that you already have.

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I think I've given you lots of ideas in this episode to do that, but you know your life best and you know where you can make a small change in your routine that doesn't actually.

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Take more time.

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That's what you're looking for, is making different choices that don't take more time out of your day.

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Weight loss isn't about waiting for the perfect time.

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It's about learning how to adapt no matter what's going on in your life.

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Small steps done consistentlywill get you further than any quote unquote perfect plan.

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You can't sustain.

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I really truly believe that if this episode resonated with you and you're ready to get help with your sustainable plan, or you need help building some of those small habits.

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If you're feeling stuck in any way, I'd love to help.

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Don't forget to check out my three part video series, what to Do When You Overeat.

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That link is in the show notes and you can also book a free coaching session to see if my full 12 week one-on-one coaching program is right for you.

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You can schedule it at the link in the show notes.

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Remember, it's not just about the food.

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It's about empowering yourself with the choices that truly serve You.

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Have a great week and as always, thanks for listening and sharing the Eat Well Think Well Live Well podcast.