Hey beautiful people! Hope all of you are having a great start to your new year! Mine has been all over the place! It's not often I get more personal on here, but I felt as though this is a great and fitting post for this blog. I wanted to let you in on some real life stuff that I have no doubt many of you often or at least once have encountered. No frills. And if you know me, you know I like to keep it pretty real 99% of the time. I'm an open book and if you ever need an honest answer I'm usually the one to tell you how it is (nicely of course I'm not an animal with no feelings.) I am also the WORST at telling any sort of lie. Thanks mom with 5 eyes behind your head. You didn't even give me a chance to lie if I wanted to. hah.
Anyway, I decided to let you all in on some "struggle-bus" things that have been manifesting in my life recently. Nothing too dramatic, but enough to drive me to write this post.
January is a month that we put a lot of pressure on. Even on me, a healthcare professional that helps others with their weight-loss and nutrition struggles. I've found that people automatically assume that because you're a dietitian that you just live this magical lifestyle of being at the gym 24/7 in your cute yoga pants while you come home to your perfectly portioned meals and snack on kale chips and green tea throughout the day. EHHHH WRONG. HA. I'm here to tell you that this is SO not what goes on. At least with this dietitian. And I can tell you from some dietitian friends of mine that this is just not the case for most of us.
What got me to writing this post has been my recent struggle. Here's the lowdown of the last month and a half for me.
- Erratic schedule from the holidays and the aftermath
- Missing half or more of the workout classes I typically make
- One large week and a half vacation with half of it being a Disney cruise (all you can eat buffets + foodie = womp, womp, womp)
- 5-8 lb weight gain (I'm at a weight I haven't seen since after my freshman year of college)
* Side note the scale obviously does not define you however, it is quite frustrating when you're at a weight you haven't been in a long time and you know for certain that that weight is most certainly NOT muscle gains because you haven't gotten your lazy butt to workout. UGH.
OK so yes. I've already shared on my Instagram that I have finally been sticking to an exercise schedule and loving it. However the problem was that this past month I was hardly even home to go to sed workout classes and frankly was too busy/lazy to make my own workout schedule without the gym. So naturally just to compound on this issue I then went on vacation for a while and it just put the icing on the cake (literally... I had cake almost every night for dessert).
So here I am writing to you now with this aftermath. Sometimes these personal struggles remind me why I do what I do. I could tell you how everything metabolizes in our body down to the biochemistry, how much protein each of you should be consuming based on your anthropometrics/activity level, and specific foods to eat to remedy certain disease states and here I am having the same struggles as many of my patients, friends, family, acquaintances.
But here is what I learned. You have 2 decisions when you're stuck in this scenario of "falling off the wagon." 1. You could let the frustration consume you and keep riding that downward spiral OR 2. Recognize that you had some fun with a few minor consequences and make a plan to get back on the wagon. THIS right here is where most people need the support or encouragement and the nutritional knowledge (from dietitian) to make the necessary changes. So being how I am naturally I made myself a new workout schedule that I knew I would stick to. It's so specific it covered all the way down to workouts when I would not be home and traveling. AND I decided to start meal prepping for breakfast and lunch as these are the two meals I tend to get lazy with. It has worked awesome so far and I am happy to be back on a schedule with whole, healthy, and delicious food.
MORAL OF THE STORY - We all go through ups and downs with a healthy lifestyle. It happens and it's this little thing called life. What's most important is being mindful of the scenario and finding the motivation + support to change it around and get back on a schedule. It's not always rainbows and butterflies and that's OK. I'm here to remind you that if you are struggling right now there's always room to change. It's not important about what happened... it's important about what you do about it!
I can't wait to help you all soon once my PLLC is set up! For now I do have a meal plan that features all winter recipes! Check it out if you haven't yet!
Until Next Time,
xx
Jackie
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