Is Your Sugar Addiction Actually Stress Eating in Disguise?

You likely know that your overeating of sugar and other ultra-processed foods (cookies, cupcakes, potato chips, etc) isn’t healthy. These foods contribute to inflammation and excess weight. If you’re like my clients, you’ve tried to quit eating them. And while you can resist them for a while, sooner or later you find yourself craving them. You say to yourself “I don’t care”. And, you go back to them with a vengeance – you don’t just eat one cookie, you eat an entire box. This cycle may make you wonder if you have a sugar addiction.

I’ve helped hundreds of people take control of cravings. To be able to enjoy these foods on occasion without overeating them. In working with them we’ve discovered that they don’t have a sugar addiction or addiction to ultra-processed foods. They’re stress eating. 

That’s why they can’t stop eating these foods, even though they know that they shouldn’t. Because it’s not about nutrition knowledge at this point. And, it’s not about addiction. It’s that they’re stressed.

Why Do We Stress Eat?

When we’re stressed, we have a legitimate emotional need. In stress eating, you meet your emotional need, i.e. deal with your stress, by eating. That’s why you say “I don’t care” in that moment. You do care about eating healthfully, but at that moment your emotional need is superseding your desire to eat healthfully. Stress eating provides temporary comfort and distraction from the stress. But it’s only temporary. And, in fact, it can actually cause more stress, because now on top of the stress you were already feeling, you beat yourself up for eating all that junk food. Ugh.

Common diet advice is to eat something healthy instead. You’ve seen it before – “Craving a cupcake? Have an apple instead.”

But that advice is treating the situation as if you don’t know that a cupcake isn’t healthy for you. Not true. Of course, you know that the cupcake isn’t good for you and you shouldn’t eat it. As the saying goes: “When all you’ve got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. In other words, if all you’re looking at is food as fuel, then the only solution you can offer is another food.

The Solution to Stress Eating

The reality is that we human beings are much more complicated than that. Food plays more roles in our lives than simply fuel for our bodies. Food has emotional meanings and cultural connections beyond meeting our body’s nutrient needs.

To fix the problem, we need to address the root cause. I.e. meeting your stress/emotional need through something other than food.

The solution is to build up your other self-care tools. It’s not about eating healthier food during a stress-eating event. It’s about taking care of yourself in a way other than eating. What some call ‘practicing other coping mechanisms’. Each person’s self-care, how they can address their stress, is unique.  What makes you feel good is going to be different from what makes me feel good.

How to Stop Stress Eating (my stress eating technique):

1. When you’re in a good or neutral mood, write down a list of self-care actions. For example, do a sudoku puzzle, play the piano, have a bath, cuddle with your puppy.

2. The next time that you’re stressed and craving cupcakes/chips/etc, pull out your list.

3. Do an action from your list.

How to Prevent Stress Eating

Also, when you’re going through a stressful time. It’s important to do extra self-care, not just when you’re experiencing a craving. Prioritizing and investing the time in self-care will lessen your reliance on emotional eating. Yes, going for that walk, re-watching that favourite movie, and/or going to counselling will help you eat better when times get tough.  

 Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

The Cortisol- Belly Fat Connection (Hormones and Weight Gain)

I was planning to write about cortisol for the next post in this blog series on hormones. But I realized that two dietitians beat me to it. Amusingly, both are named Abby (well, Abbey and Abby to be specific). Their articles give a thorough breakdown of the role that cortisol plays in our bodies. The connection between cortisol and weight gain – particularly belly weight. And, nutrition strategies that can have an impact. Also, they take a look at the scientific evidence for specific diets and supplements that the internet claims can “fix cortisol quick”.

So, instead of recreating the wheel, I’m sharing their articles with you. And, adding my personal take on things from my almost 30 years of experience.

Here’s Abby Langer’s post: Does Cortisol Cause Weight Gain? Everything You Need to Know

Here’s Abbey Sharp’s post: Low Cortisol Levels and Weight Gain. How Cortisol Relates to Weight

Kristen’s Thoughts on Cortisol and Belly Fat

My experience of working with individual clients for so many years has led me to believe that chronic stress does have an impact on weight. It’s difficult to pinpoint whether this is through the action of cortisol, or other factors. A significant number of my clients are successful women. Some might call us ‘type A’ (I say ‘us’ because I recognize myself here). Driven, successful, we take on a lot of responsibility. These are fantastic characteristics and not something that we want to change. However, a consequence is that we’re chronically stressed. Often, we don’t even recognize ourselves as stressed unless something happens that takes our stress levels even higher. After having worked with hundreds of women like this, I’ve come to see that despite being physically active and eating quite healthfully, they have stubborn belly weight that just won’t shift. That’s usually why they’ve sought me out. Yes, I recommend some tweaks to their eating habits. (We all have blind spots). But more importantly, what I’ve seen to be essential for creating that weight shift is to take steps to lower chronic stress levels. Specifically:

• Daily mindfulness activities. I have no preference in how people do their mindfulness. We’re looking for the activity to take our minds out of the constant planning/to-do list and instead, sink into the moment. Examples include meditation, prayer, listening to music, a stroll in nature (forest bathing), practicing an artistic pursuit (e.g. playing the piano, singing in a choir, painting), and yoga.

• Prioritizing quality sleep. Incorporate good sleep hygiene. Talk with your primary care provider if menopausal symptoms are interrupting your sleep.

• Taking things off your plate. I mean the metaphorical plate, not eating smaller portions. This is the best way to really address the chronic stress. It’s the root cause. But usually it’s a longer-term solution. For example, what can you delegate to someone else? Is there a volunteer commitment that you can step away from?

• Adaptogens. A number of my clients have found Ashwaghanda to be helpful when combined with the other three items above. I want to be really clear here. It’s not going to work to continue on with your current lifestyle and expect a supplement to melt away belly fat (despite what the alluring social media ads tell you). If you’re considering taking adaptogens, just like before starting any vitamin/ supplement, check with a health professional to make sure it is a fit with your health conditions and/or medications.   

Understand more about your hormones. Check out this post on thyroid hormones.

Photo credit: Elisa Ventur on Unsplash

Don't Make Kids Eat Vegetables First

Usually I write my blogs with tips and advice for parents. But I know that there are a lot of Early Childhood Educators, daycare providers, nannies, and other important caregivers in our community. Today’s message is for you.

The other day, I received an email from a parent who has influenced her children to be good eaters by using the techniques that I share here. Her email was simply entitled “rant”. Here’s what this frustrated mama said about her experience with her daughter’s first month in kindergarten:

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“Petunia’s* old daycare would always dictate what she was allowed to eat out of her lunch kit and in what order. Fruit/veggies, then sandwich, then yogurt… don’t send cookies.

AND NOW I’M HAVING ISSUES WITH HER AT KINDERGARTEN

So of course, she’s not eating any of her multiple fruit/veggie options. Not even when I cut the peel off the apple and provide caramel (cream cheese) dip for them after she’s agreed that that is how she would like to eat them.

I asked daycare over and over again to stop dictating her lunch choices. Petunia has declared kindergarten awesome because she can eat whatever she wants.”

* Name changed for privacy.

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I wish that this was an isolated incident. But it’s by far not the only time that a parent has expressed their frustration with me. I knew that I needed to share it with you, so you could see the unintended consequence of your actions.

It’s only with good intentions that early childhood caregivers ask kids to eat their veggies first. You care about kids – otherwise this wouldn’t be your profession. You want kids to get the nutrition from the veggies.

Unfortunately, you’re having the opposite effect than you intended.

Forcing kids to eat veggies first only reinforces that veggies are something awful. Something that you need to get over with so that you can get to the shiny prize of the treats. The consequence is that when kids no longer have a gatekeeper around, and they can make their own food choices, they go after the forbidden foods and ignore the forced foods.

That’s what’s happening with Petunia now. At Kindergarten there is no adult gatekeeper making her eat her veggies and fruit. So she isn’t.

I know that you’re choosing your actions because you want kids to eat their veggies. But you’re actually teaching them to NOT choose to eat veggies. Oops.

For those of you working in licenced facilities here in BC, I have another reason for you to re-consider your actions. The regulations state:

48. (4) “A licensee must ensure that children are not
(b) forced to consume any food or drink,”

By dictating in what order kids must eat their meal, you are forcing kids; therefore, you are breaking the regulations.

What to do instead?

• Allow kids to eat whatever they want, in whatever order they want, from the foods that were packed for them.

• Incorporate vegetables and fruit into your curriculum.

• Organize activities that involve veggies and fruit.

• Eat with children at meals and snacks. Role model eating your veggies.

Communicate with parent about what veggies/ fruits were eaten each day so that parents can plan meals and snacks at home to create balanced nutrition throughout the day.

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Start Your Day by Setting an Intention

In a podcast that I was listening to recently, the speaker suggested starting each day by setting an intention for the day. I’ve been doing it myself and LOVING it. The rest of the day, when I’m making choices about what I get up to, I think back on my intention and decide if my action would fit with that day’s intention or go against my intention.

This idea is amazingly simple and easy to do. When your alarm rings in the morning, before you get out of bed, before you check your phone, or check on your kids, or whatever else you do, take a moment to set an intention for the day. Complete this statement: My intention for today is _______________________.

Here’s why I’m recommending it to you. Most of our day is spent racing from activity to activity. Especially us women. We spend the entire day taking care of others. Being a mother, sister, friend, employee, boss, volunteer, etc. It’s incredibly valuable to have the very first thing you do in a day be something you do for you. You’re signalling to yourself that you’re putting ‘you’ on the agenda. The chronic stress that is our modern reality runs havoc on our hormones, leading to cravings and weight gain. Taking this brief moment is a powerful way to wait a beat before that stressful day starts.

To combat the chronic stress (and the impact on their hormones), I always ask clients who participate in my 40 Days to a Happy Healthy You program, to integrate brief mindfulness practices into their day – a brief daily practice and evening practice. I’ll be adding a morning intention-setting practice to their action plans from now on so that they can get the benefits. Why not start your intention-setting practice tomorrow so that you can start experiencing the benefits?

Do You Feel Uncomfortable Just Eating?

Does it happen to you that, every once in a while, you hear a sentence that causes you to have a big AH-HA moment? Well, it happened to me last week. 1300 dietitians and I were attending the International Congress of Dietetics. In one session the presenter asked us in the audience: “Do you feel uncomfortable just eating?” Of all the hours of presentations that I heard last week, it is this question, this sentence, which is stuck in my head.

In the moment that the presenter asked me the question, I gave the knee-jerk response of “no”. Now upon further reflection I realize that I wasn’t telling myself the truth. It was my knee-jerk response because it was the ‘right’ answer. The socially-acceptable answer, at least in the social context of a group of 1300 dietitians.

But upon further reflection, I realize that my real answer is “yes”. If I am eating alone, I do feel uncomfortable ‘just’ eating. As in, eating without doing anything else simultaneously. I’ve long been a believer in stopping work to take a meal break. As a rule I don’t work on my computer while eating. And, I love to entertain. While some find a dinner party to be a source of stress, I truly love feeding people. The trouble comes when I’m alone. I’ve been divorced for over 5 years now. For the first few years, I filled the lonely silence at meals with the TV (well, Netflix on my laptop to be precise). More recently I’ve weaned myself off of the TV at breakfast and lunch. But I do usually read something while I eat dinner – magazines, novels, research articles, etc. and occasionally I watch Netflix. Something to distract myself from being totally mindful when eating.

This admission is a little bit risky because I teach mindfulness with my clients. But if you’ve been with me for a while, you know that I believe in being transparent. So I felt compelled to share my experience with you. Perhaps it is this very incongruence that made the question stick in my mind. I know that you don’t expect me to be perfect. But I really should practice what I preach. When the presenter asked the question, she shone a spotlight on my blind spot.

If I get nothing else out of the International Congress, I will consider it a week well spent. Why? Because I am taking the next two weeks of my trip to implement this change; I am committing to 'just' eating.

Now it’s my turn to ask you:

Do you feel uncomfortable ‘just’ eating?

If so, I encourage you to join me in closing the book, turning off the screen, and tuning in to your food. Eat mindfully. Become comfortable ‘just’ eating.

Your Health is like a Bank Account

Today’s post is inspired by a conversation that I had with a client over the weekend. It’s a conversation that I have with most clients. We women tend to hold ourselves to a very high standard. There can be a good side of this; it helps us strive towards excellence. And, there can be a downside of this; being very hard on ourselves when we don’t live up to our expectations.

When applied to our relationship with food, I call it the dieting mentality. Going on a diet means that starting XX day, I’ll eat “perfectly” according to [insert name of plan]. I’ll never again eat sugar, highly processed foods, caffeine, [insert “bad” food]. Which sounds good. Except that life gets in the way. We get busy. We get stressed out. We get invited to a party. The holiday season arrives. Inevitably we eat the “bad” food. And, we slip back into our old habits. What follows? Our negative self-talk. We scold ourselves for misbehaving. We blame ourselves for not having the strength to stick to our new diet.

If this sounds familiar, I have some very, very good news for you. Being healthy doesn’t require us to eat “perfectly”. This dieting mentality has got it all wrong. Our bodies are amazing. They’re designed to be forgiving; to operate well even without the perfect fuel every day.

Here’s the analogy that I like to use to explain this phenomenon:

Our health is like a bank account. Every healthy meal and snack that we eat is like depositing money in a bank account. The more healthy choices you make, the more your bank balance increases.

There will also be days and weeks where you don’t make healthy choices – where you make withdrawals. If your typical eating habits are healthy, you have a big balance and it’s okay to take some withdrawals because your bank balance can take it. When life returns back to normal, you can start depositing money back into your account and build your bank balance back up again.

But, if your daily eating habits aren’t healthy, then your bank balance is near zero. When the crazy stressful times come, you don’t have much to draw from and soon you’ll be in overdraft. You’ll experience negative health consequences. You’ll be running on empty.

I hope that you can see how different this concept of healthy eating is versus the dieting mentality. The bank account mentality assumes that you’ll have times when you’ll eat unhealthy. Eating unhealthy isn’t “failure”; it’s a normal part of life. As such, there’s no need to be hard on yourself, to feel shame, to feel guilt. Instead, it’s an opportunity to be grateful – to recognize and congratulate yourself for building up your bank account to carry you through the stressful time. And, to be amazed at how resilient our bodies are.

Free yourself from the perfectionistic fear of food. Enjoy the journey of making deposits and withdrawals from your health bank account.

3 Simple Steps to Make Healthy Eating Your Reality

In our super-busy lives, eating can be way off our radar. You eat on the run, grabbing whatever, whenever and shoving it in your face as you answer emails, drive, work at your computer, etc. Does this sound familiar? Have you been trying to eat better but can’t seem to make it happen? It’s time to make eating a priority. Or, as Ellyn Satter (a dietitian whose work forms the foundation of my own) says:

Make Healthy Eating Your Reality: “Feed yourself faithfully.”

This, I agree with Ellyn, is step #1 to healthy eating. Before you change a single thing that you put in your mouth, the first thing that you need to do is make feeding yourself a priority. It’s only by fluke that we achieve anything that we don’t make a priority.

If you want to make healthy eating your reality, day-to-day, , and not just a fluke, here are the 3 simple steps to take:

1. Break out your calendar. Schedule in time to eat 3 meals and an afternoon snack. Schedule it every single day. Yes, actually book the time in your calendar.
2. Schedule in time for grocery shopping and meal prep. Want to be an “A” student? Schedule a time for weekly meal planning.
3. This is the tricky step. The step that is key to making healthy eating your reality. Don’t schedule other activities during your eating times. If you regularly bump eating for other priorities, you’ll end up in the frustration of eating well for a few days and then slipping back into unhealthy habits.

What if you can’t avoid occasionally breaking the rule in step #3? Make it a true double-booking (and not a substitution). Make that meeting a lunch date and choose a restaurant with healthy menu choices. Have a weekly mid-afternoon staff meeting? Propose that team members take turns bringing a healthy snack for everyone. Is your morning commute lengthy? Schedule time on the weekend to shop for and prep ingredients for healthy smoothies. Portion ingredients into individual baggies and freeze. Or, the night before, prepare overnight oats and enjoy your breakfast when you arrive at your desk.

Feeding yourself faithfully is the key to making healthy eating your reality. Your calendar is an essential tool to make it happen.

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Join Me in Trying Something New

Today’s post is inspired by my experience with a dietetic intern last week. A little background: to become a dietitian, you get an undergraduate degree in dietetics and do a 1-year internship where you shadow dietitians in the many places that we work. I’m always excited when interns ask if they can spend time with me. I’m happy to share my perspective with them, and I always learn something from them in return. The intern who shadowed me last week is from Saskatchewan. She has only visited the coast briefly before but she wants to move here. So, in addition to sharing my perspective on our profession, I was sharing aspects of our west coast culture with her. Including food.

The fantastic news is that she jumped right in to the experience and tried all sorts of new foods. Foods that I take for granted but were new to her. What did she try? Oysters, candied salmon, tempeh, deep fried pickles, and several dishes at a raw food restaurant. Okay, maybe the deep fried pickles aren’t a part of my repertoire. But the rest are my regular fare.

Her enthusiasm made me look in my own fridge and cupboards. When was the last time that I tried a new food? I honestly can’t remember. Oops, looks like I’ve been stuck in a rut.

Now, it’s your turn. When was the last time that you tried a new food?

Why do I care? Because variety is more than the spice of life. It’s a key to healthy eating. We human beings aren’t pandas – existing solely on bamboo shoots. No single food provides all the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that we need. We need a wide variety of foods. The wider the better.

This month I’m going to try new things. Maybe new foods. Maybe new dishes whose ingredients are familiar to me. It’s time to get out of my rut.

Are you with me?

P.S. Would you like a little inspiration? Each week on Facebook I do “What’s This Wednesday” where I post a veggie or fruit and start a conversation on favourite ways to prepare/ eat it. I also post a recipe board on Pinterest with all sorts of ideas.

NGC: No Sugar at Breakfast

This month’s nutrition game changer (NGC)* relates to breakfast. While I may not agree with the common sentiment that breakfast is the most important meal of the day (they’re all equally important), I have found that getting breakfast right can set you up for good energy all day. On the flip side, a couple of commonly-made breakfast mistakes can set you up for a day of cravings.

I’ve found that having a sugary breakfast can set you up to ride the blood sugar roller coaster all day long. By blood sugar roller coaster, I mean having your blood sugar spike after breakfast to subsequently cash making you crave sugar. After you eat the mid-morning donuts your blood sugar will spike and then crash again by lunch. And, again and again all day long.

I learned this one personally. While I always ate breakfast, for many years my breakfast of choice was toast with butter and jam and some fruit. I craved those donuts mid-morning, and other sugary treats all day long. I simply blamed it on my sweet tooth. When I switched up my breakfast to some plain yogurt with fruit, I noticed that I my sugar cravings decreased the whole day. I’ve continued to evolve my breakfast to be overnight oats, topped with nuts or seeds and fruit and I have fantastic energy all day long. Sure, I still enjoy something sweet most days. But it’s by choice. I’m not feeling controlled by my cravings.

Subsequently, I’ve found that I’m not the only one for whom this is an effective strategy. Decreasing the sugar (with a goal of completely removing the added sugar) at breakfast is something that I recommend for almost all of my clients. It consistently results in reduced cravings all day long.

To clarify, I’m talking about added sugars – not the natural sugar found in fruit. Added sugar is found in many seemingly-healthy breakfast cereals, in jam, in “fruit” yogurt, and when you add it to your coffee or tea.

Now if we’ve been connected for a while you’ll know that I’m not an anti-sugar hardliner (check out my “Why I’m Anti-Anti-Sugar” post). Healthy eating certainly can include the pleasure of sweets. I recommend enjoying them later in the day so that they don’t cause you day-long cravings.

*A Nutrition Game Changer (NGC) is a food or habit that has made a big impact on the nutritional health of clients I’ve worked with. And, in my life too. Some may call these nutrition hacks. But I'm not a fan of that phrase. I share one NGC each month.

Curious about how I can help you achieve your health and nutrition goals? Schedule a (free) call to find out.

NGC: 'What I Like About My Body' Daily Practice

A Nutrition Game Changer (NGC) is a food or habit that has made a big impact on the nutritional health of clients whom I’ve worked with. And, in my life too. Some may call these nutrition hacks. But I'm not a fan of that phrase. I share one NGC each month. Back in January I shared a habit that isn’t actually nutrition-related. Perhaps you could call it a “life game changer” or “life-hack”. International Women’s Day is one week away (Tues March 8th). To recognize it I thought that I would share with you another powerful “life game changer”.

Now since this habit isn’t a food or drink so you’re likely wondering why I’m sharing it. I’m sharing it because I’ve found it to be a powerful way to improve our day-to-day happiness.

So what’s this powerful habit? It’s having a daily ‘what I like about my body’ practice. At the end of each day, write down one thing that you like about your body. Some days it may be easy to choose something you love – your eyes, your hair, your powerful legs. Other days it may be more of a challenge, you may have to dig deep through your long list of the things you hate about your body to come up with things like “I can see” or “I have two legs and the ability to walk”.

I’ve added this practice to the action plans for every woman who has participated in my 40 Days to a Happy, Healthy You weight loss program. Many have told me how much they liked the practice (even those who originally resisted it).

What’s the rationale for this practice? Back when I was doing my Masters degree I was exposed to feminist deconstruction of our cultural norms. I learned how we women usually don’t experience our bodies for ourselves. Instead, we experience our bodies through how we perceive others (usually men) to be viewing them. Our thoughts about our bodies are:

• “Do I look fat?”
• “How’s my hair look today?”

Instead of:

• “I love the feeling in my lungs of drawing in a huge breath of fresh air.”
• “I love the cozy, warm feeling of wrapping a big scarf around my neck.”

A daily ‘what I like about my body’ practice interrupts our usual external observer way of viewing our bodies. It allows a foot in the door for experiencing our own bodies for ourselves. With practice, that can open the door wide for positive body image.

Do you wish you were happier? Want to feel better about yourself? Even, like what you see in the mirror? Give a daily ‘what I like about my body’ practice a try. It’s a game changer.

Another Reason to Plan Your Meals

It’s been unavoidable this past week. Every newscast seems to be talking about how the low Canadian dollar is going to mean increasing food costs. Ugh. Not exactly the news that we want to hear after the expensive holiday season. But, in looking for the silver lining, I’m choosing to see this as one more reason for you to plan your meals. Why? Because when you plan your meals and shop for the food that you’ll need to make those meals, you end up wasting less food. Less food in the garbage means more money in your pocket. Period.

Not convinced yet? When I suggest creating a meal plan, often people respond something like:

“I’m already crazy-busy. How am I supposed to add one more thing to my life?!”

I agree that at first it seems like making a meal plan is adding more to your already overly full schedule.

But, in reality it actually saves time and stress.

A good portion of the stress of making dinner each night is figuring out what the heck you’ll make. Many parents admit that this thought (and it’s stress/ worry/ fear) starts creeping into their minds at about 4pm.

Not having a plan leaves you multi-tasking to come up with some idea while you’re finishing up your work day, rushing to pick the kids up from daycare, and fighting the traffic to get home and/or to extra-curricular activities. Not having a plan likely means creating an extra task of running in to the grocery store, with kids in tow, when the store is at it’s busiest. Not fun.

While it does take time to sit down and create a meal plan, doing so will save you hours of stress each week.

Does the structure of a meal plan make you feel constrained? Remember that it’s your plan – change it whenever you want! Did you plan to make a complicated, new recipe tonight but you had an awful day and all you want to do is order pizza? Order the pizza! And revise your plan so that the ingredients that you bought for that new dish are used up before they go bad.

Not convinced? Give it a try, just for this month. What do you have to lose?

When You Fall Off the Wagon, Get Back on Again

How great would it be if it was easy to start new healthy habits? Everyone would be perfectly healthy. I’d be out of a job. Some days I fantasize about working in a fabulous boutique. But my job in a boutique will stay a fantasy because the reality is that starting new habits takes effort. The funny thing is that the difficult stage isn’t the first few days. For the first few days, most of us are gung ho about our new habit. To use some of my 1980’s childhood slang “we’re totally psyched”. We’re taking action and everything is smooth sailing. Then one day we just don’t feel like getting out of bed to go for that morning yoga class. Or, the junk food in the convenience store calls out our name as we walk past after work. Pretty much all of us will fall off the wagon. My post this week is inspired by both my personal experience and a recent conversation with a client. Both of us fell off the wagon with our new healthy habits. If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you will have seen that I’m challenging myself to meditate every day for 1 year. I started August 23rd. And, as expected, it was smooth sailing for over a month. Then one day I came smack up against a wall. I didn’t want to stop what I was doing during the day and meditate (not that what I was up to that day was especially important). I fell off the wagon. I didn’t meditate. It would have been so easy to slip back into my old routine (i.e. not meditating). But I dug in, changed things up, and did an active meditation. Since then it’s been smooth sailing again. In other words, I got back on the wagon.

Pretty much all of us will fall off the wagon with our healthy habits. What’s important is getting back up on the wagon again. It’s so easy to let the negative self-talk take over when we fall off the wagon. Do thoughts like this sound familiar?

“Now you’ve done it. You’ve lost your 365 days challenge. It’s all over now. There’s no point doing anything today. What were you thinking in doing it anyways, there’s no way that you could achieve that. It was unrealistic. You’re not consistent enough at anything. There’s no point in trying new things.”

If we don’t make the effort to stop it, that voice can spin out of control, applying our “failure” to more and more aspects of our life.

Here’s what to tell that voice. Wellness doesn’t require perfection. The benefit of these habits is realized over time, when we do them more often than we don’t. I will enjoy reduced stress from meditating for 364 (or 363, 360, or 355) days instead of 365. You will reduce your risk for heart disease, cancer and diabetes if you eat 7 servings of veggies and fruit most days. You will become stronger if you make 8 out of the 10 weeks of that strength training for women class.

I’m going to go even further. I have a suspicion that falling off the wagon is actually a good thing. When we get back on again, we show ourselves that we CAN recover. We believe in ourselves even more now because we are no longer afraid of falling off the wagon. We know that if we fall off, we can just get right back up on it. As my friend, executive and sports coach Vic Lindal says, it’s not IQ or EQ (emotional intelligence), that sets successful people apart. It’s AQ (adversity quotient) – how well you do in the face of adversity, that will determine your success in achieving your goals.

When you fall off the wagon (and you will), get back on again.

It's a Great Day to Start a New Healthy Habit

It may be Tuesday September 8th, but for me it’s the first day of a new year. It’s the day after Labour Day. For many kids it’s the first day of a new school year. And while it’s been 12 years since I was in school, I can’t shake the itch to start fresh at this time of year. Regardless of how long it’s been since you went back to school, this week is a fantastic time to start something new. I mean, any day is the first day of the rest of your life. Why not start a new healthy habit today?

If you’ve been connecting with me on Facebook or Instagram you’ve seen that 2 weeks ago I started a new daily meditation habit (that picture above is a shot from 1 of my meditation spots). I started meditating sporadically many years ago. Over the winter I increased the frequency to several times a week. I liked what it was adding to my life. So one random Sunday I decided to pick up my game and meditate daily. I’m aiming for 365 days. I admit that I’ve been tempted to skip days. But so far I’m proud to let you know that I’m 15 for 15.

What new habit will you start this week? Here are a few ideas to spark your inspiration:

• Pack a lunch. Not only is this a healthier habit than eating out every day, but you’ll save money too.
• Turn off the screens during meals. It’s a simple way to enjoy more pleasure from your food. And, by being more in-tune with your body, you’ll likely eat less (or should I say, over-eat less).
• Buy a water bottle to stimulate yourself to drink more water.
• Meal plan for the week.
• Make a point of trying 1 new vegetable each week.

Share you’re new habit in a comment below. Articulating your commitment increases the likelihood that you’ll do it!