Hey everybody, welcome back to Concierge Weight Loss. Today, we are talking about something that honestly affects
Women way more than they think.
And that is this belief. If I'm not cooking healthy, homemade meals all the time,
I failed. I'm failing weight loss, I'm failing my family, I'm failing.
I think so… so many women believe successful weight loss is supposed to look like meal prep containers,
Homemade balanced meals.
Uh, cooking every night. Perfectly curated grocery hauls. No convenience foods ever, or takeout, no fast foods.
Like, somehow struggling or sacrificing around
Food really proves that they really want weight loss more.
And because of that, women often make healthy eating feel way harder than it actually needs to be.
Real life includes exhaustion and stressful work days,
kids' activities, uh, schedule changes, that happens to me all the time.
some emotional days, right? We all have those at least once a month.
And nights that you simply just don't want to cook.
And honestly, that's normal. But I think women have been taught that convenience automatically
means that you're lazy, you're failing. It's definitely gotta be unhealthy.
And that you are not trying hard enough.
I just don't agree with that. Because one of the biggest things that I teach women is that healthy eating
should support your life. Your life right now as it is.
So, it should not consume your life.
And a lot of women are so overwhelmed.
trying to do healthy eating right, that they end up doing nothing at all.
They stand in the kitchen exhausted.
I think, what sounds good? What should I eat? What am I allowed to have?
What's healthy enough? What's the right choice?
And eventually, they just order takeout, grab fast food.
grab a pizza, or snack all night.
They eat reactively, or they just skip eating completely until they're starving.
Decision fatigue is a real thing. I think I often say, can you decide this on your own? Or give me 3 options and I'll pick one. I get bad into decision fatigue, especially because we're already overwhelmed.
From our work, or taking care of our families, and…
You know, my schedule's usually pretty full, so I know why I'm overwhelmed with
having to choose things. I don't want to choose another thing.
So, the emotional stress of it all, it just…
They were constantly taking care of everything else and everyone else. So instead of making food,
more complicated. I want women to make
it's simpler. So, honestly, simple and supportive. It beats perfect and overwhelming every single time.
I had a client once whose kitchen was being remodeled, and she told me, well, there goes my weight loss this month,
If I can't cook healthy meals at home, I know I'm not gonna lose any weight.
So instead of giving up, we treated it like an experiment.
What if she intentionally practiced?
Making the best choice available.
You know, a supportive choice while eating out at a restaurant or fast food. Every meal.
for weeks. And honestly?
She lost weight. Not because she ate perfectly,
or the most healthy, but because she learned how to make decisions, how to adjust, pivot, right?
How to stay intentional, how to stop spiraling.
And what was really interesting was by the end of it, she said,
I'm so tired of restaurants and fast food, I just want something from home.
That was important. She realized she wasn't powerless around convenience foods.
She could trust herself. She could make supportive decisions.
anywhere. And weight loss didn't require anything to be perfect.
So, that confidence, man, that changed everything.
So, so many women believe that I can't do it right, I can't do it perfect, and if so, I can't do it at all.
And that thinking keeps you stuck.
It keeps you powerless. So one of the biggest
mindset shifts, a thought shift, right, that women need, is realizing that
Something convenient that fits in our schedule does not automatically mean unhealthy.
So, um…
Convenience foods.
you're gonna ask yourself which ones are gonna support your body the most.
So, not always, but…
Neither, like…
We don't need stress eating and skipping meals, and drive-through panic eating, nighttime overeating, because we're starving. Instead, we're…
asking, what's perfect, I want women to ask,
What's supportive? Like, what do I need? What would be… what would fit my schedule right now? What's realistic right now?
That question, it's gonna be super helpful. It's gonna change everything.
So, maybe here's a port of choice is, like, something from the grocery, a rotisserie chicken, or a salad kit, maybe a frozen meal.
Maybe it's something simple, like just a quick sandwich, a lunch meat sandwich.
or a pre-made meal. Grocery store soups.
Something that is, um, takeout, but maybe with a little bit of adjustment, so that…
You, you know, you healthify it, you level it up a little bit.
Maybe it's something grilled at a restaurant or at a fast food. Maybe you get a grilled chicken sandwich instead of the
the fried sandwich at the store, at the restaurant, or, sorry, the drive-thru.
Um, my favorite go-to when I really am…
like, feel great about my body, and making great choices, and I don't really want to stray from it, but I lose time, is to go order some fajitas.
And I don't have all that extra stuff. It's like the meat and the veggies, that's the part that I really love. Maybe I ask for some extra salsa and pour on there.
But, like, I'm skipping the extras, right?
Um, and that is a great meal. That would have been something perfect I would have made at home on a day that I had all the energy to do it.
But I didn't have to make it, and it was just as delicious. And it doesn't send me spiraling off track in any kind of direction.
You know, sometimes it's pizza, and you add a side salad, and you're feeling real proud of yourself with that side salad, you know?
Um, and then quick meals that you know can be repeated quickly. And so, maybe we've done…
some marinara that has, like, the veggies and, you know, no extra added sugars and stuff like that.
With, um, some whole wheat pasta, and that's like a quick go-to meal.
whatever it is, find your quick meals that you can repeat honestly.
Those all still count.
I think women dismiss those
supportive choices all the time, because they weren't homemade enough, or healthy enough, or…
perfect enough. But tiny choices…
tiny little supportive, helpful choices, they are going to be what matters most.
Most women are trying to jump from cautious eating straight into unrealistic.
like, perfect what you've seen on the Instagrams or whatever, eating.
And they feel like failures when they're not maintaining that level of meal prep or of cooking.
But sustainable eating usually grows in layers. So, first…
some kind of consistency, and then some confidence, and then more intentional choices are going to be layered all throughout.
Women gain confidence when they realize that they have it within themselves.
To support themself in real life.
Not just on calm days, or a day that you're feeling extra motivated, or during a perfect week. But on real-life days.
One of the biggest things
The icy women waiting for is on a day that they have more time.
less stress. A calmer season of life.
Definitely on days that they feel more motivated.
before they really start. But honestly, life keeps getting lifey, right? We keep having it be hard sometimes, and busy, and…
Like, things… there will always be busy seasons. There's always gonna be stressful weeks, or emotional days, nights that you simply don't feel like it. I just don't have it in me to cook anything.
I'd rather skip meal and go to bed. That kind of day.
So instead of waiting for the ideal circumstances, women need to practice. How…
Do I make it work today? How can I…
How can I figure this out and support myself now?
That support may look way simpler than women think.
Another thing I see constantly is…
um… women believing that healthy eating has to be complicated and time-consuming, even expensive.
Um, it doesn't.
Your body does not require perfection to lose weight. Your body, it'll benefit.
From that consistency
of just doing some things, often.
Um, enough nourishment.
Skipping the meal, you're not getting enough nourishment, so your body's gonna benefit by just giving it some nourishment.
Um, anything that's supportive, any kind of habit, or reducing overeating cycles. So, when we've gone down that spiral, right?
We always come out with, like, a pizza at the end of the day, or binge eating while we watch TV.
So, reducing those spirals, your body will benefit so much more. That all matters way more than any woman I've worked with has realized.
I think they are so afraid of making the wrong food decision.
that they avoid making decisions altogether.
But avoiding decisions is still a decision.
It usually leads to more overeating later, or that drive-through panic.
nighttime snacking. So, a lot of times they'll say, ah, I skipped meals, or they think they have to, like, extra workouts to make up for it. And it all leads to exhaustion.
So instead of waiting for perfect food decisions, I want women building trust in their ability to make supportive decisions
Most of the time.
That's sustainable eating, most of the time.
Not perfection, not punishment,
And definitely not homemade meals every single night. I don't have time for that, and it's not my favorite activity.
If it's your favorite activity, great. You build time for that, but it's not mine.
And I… I don't make time for that. I don't want it in my schedule on that type of level.
of stress and commitment. That's not where I'm at. I want to get something…
I like, I want to get it in there quick.
And I want to move on with my day. I have other things that I enjoy more.
So, one of the most freeing things that women can realize, you can lose weight.
While eating like a normal person.
You can have what we call the convenience foods, or eating out sometimes, and you can repeat meals.
You don't… you don't need every meal, every day to be completely different from the previous ones.
You can use frozen foods, and you can simplify everywhere.
You can make those supportive, like, upgrades, and still make progress.
Because sustainable eating should fit your life, not require you to become some completely different Martha Stewart person.
So, this week I want you asking yourself, what foods feel supportive and realistic right now?
What meals could be simpler?
What convenience foods actually…
Help me stay more consistent.
Where am I making things…
too hard. Way harder than it needs to be.
Uh, what tiny… what tiny choice could I practice today?
So, what could eating look like on my busiest days, and still feel…
support it for myself. So, most women do not need stricter rules around food. They need simpler support systems.
That's exactly the kind of thing we work through in coaching. Not perfect eating, not unrealistic meal prep, not food shame.
Real-life support for real-life women.
Women who are busy and exhausted and overwhelmed.
emotional eaters, tired of starting over, feeling like they're all failing. Together, we figure out what actually works for your life.
You can book a free, personalized solutions call at www.coachingkara.com/freecall.
And if this episode helped you, share it with a friend who thinks healthy eating only counts.
she cooked it from scratch.
Alright, friend, I'll talk to you next week.
