As a nutrition coach and personal trainer, I’ve found that the 2 most important questions to ask when you want to lose or maintain your weight are:
Am I hungry? And How did today go?
Ground breaking, right? No but seriously, these questions are extremely important!
Am I hungry?
might seem completely self explanatory, but it’s not quite as simple as it sounds. Have you ever caught yourself at the pantry trying to figure out if you’re hungry or just bored? You might not know if you’re hungry, and that can be confusing! If you skip meals to save calories for a big dinner or stop eating early to stay under a calorie goal, you might not know what lower hunger levels feel like anymore. But instead of just eating anyway, try this:
Distract yourself with any activity. If you no longer feel inclined to eat, odds are you really weren’t hungry. If you continue to think about it, maybe grab a protein filled snack to hold you over until your next meal.
Asking yourself if you’re hungry throughout the day will slowly get easier. Once you are able to tell the difference between true hunger and boredom, you will save countless empty calories and tummy aches.
Now for the next question…
How did today go?
Prescribe a time at the end of the day to reflect on how today went. Mine is when I brush my teeth! This should literally only take 30 seconds to 1 minute. Designating time to do this will give you a chance to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Maybe today you weren’t able to prioritize veggies but you were able to get your steps in and up your water intake. Doing this will allow you to acknowledge today’s wins and make tomorrow better. This is my teacher’s background showing lol, but I strongly encourage you to follow the 2 stars and 1 wish rule. Say 2 successes from today out loud and 1 thing you wish to improve for tomorrow.
Odds are you are your worst critic, so it can be really easy to focus on all of the things you did poorly. Don’t do that! If someone’s constantly sh**ing on you, does that make you want to do better? NO. Often it makes you want to quit. As a general rule of thumb, if you wouldn’t say it to your best friend, don’t say it to yourself.
If you can ask yourself these questions every single day you will see major changes that get you to your goals faster. Who doesn’t want that?
For a little more info and my gorgeous voice 😉 check out my podcast episode on this very topic.