Are you tired of overeating’ Do You want to find food freedom’

I am a firm believer in writing things down and making lists! And I think that if you want anything in your life, then you need to make a list and be like, this is the shit that I want to come true!! As most of you know, when I started my podcast, I made a list of the things I wanted to talk about and I’m so grateful that I am able to cross off another item on my list! And one of those things was, I wanted to talk about food obsession and food freedom and found this amazing lady, Chelsea Kaller who is a freaking Rockstar! So today we are going to dive right into talking about cheat meals and how NOT TO LET THEM turn into the runaway freaking express and give you some strategies to help you with this.

I met Chelsea on Instagram and not only does she have this amazing energy about her, but she also has a podcast called Finding Your Happiest and Healthiest. Chelsea also helps women find their happiest, healthiest, most confident version of themselves. And while every woman’s version of DAMN HAPPY, DAMN HEALTHY looks different… Ultimately, it’s about living life unapologetically, on your terms. This pursuit can be with your health, job, relationships, or any area of life. Damn Happy, Damn Healthy is more than just health and fitness – it’s a lifestyle guided to help women create as much success, freedom and abundance in their lives as possible! You can be healthy without your happy, and you can’t be happy without your healthy – and I want to help you achieve both!” – Chelsea Kaller

This is about FOOD FREEDOM. This is about not sacrificing your happiness or your health and finding a way to blend them together as one to create the life you want! We have lost freaking track that WE CAN create our own destiny, and we all of a sudden think of life and happiness and have that in one category and put fitness and nutrition into another category. And we don’t think that we can have them both together. When it comes to finding your happiest and healthiest most confident self, it’s about finding balance between all of these things!

Listen, I DON’T KNOW who started this rumor, but in order to have what I want, it has to be hard, or if I don’t choose the hard path then what am I doing’ This is not right! Why not choose the green path’ If you can get to the same destination by doing it the hard way or the easier way that feels really good for you. It’s a no-brainer! You choose the EASIER way!! We have to WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER!!

Health and fitness doesn’t fit into this cookie-cutter mold. Every person is different, every persons lifestyle and home is different. What some can do may not be what someone else can do. So, YOU have to find your own path and your own version of healthy! So many women get vapor locked into the rules and don’t take a step back to say how does this works FOR ME’ It’s SOOO important to take health and fitness and make it fit into your life INSTEAD of flipping your life upside down to fit health and fitness. So listen up magic makers…. quit changing your life to fit health and fitness, and change health and fitness to fit YOUR LIFE.

So let’s jump into going from CHEAT MEALS TO FOOD FREEDOM! I’m guilty and have seen clients do the same thing, but let’s say it’s Friday night and it’s date night! The night starts with pizza. That pizza tastes delicious, so I am going to have 2 slices of pizza. Alright, so since I already had 2 slices of pizza, let’s have a glass of wine and since I had the wine I might as well have some dessert or chocolate! Sound familiar” Both Chelsea and I have dealt with this on a personal level and have been there…  So what do you do”

One of the things I tell my clients is that most of us DO NOT live these lives where spontaneous events happen often.? We usually know if there is an event, date night, girls night out.. so I always say, HEY! Make a plan! And girl, I LOVE the idea of planning, so before you are going to go out, peep the menu quickly and see what there is so that you can figure out what you are going to eat.  Mentally prepare yourself for the not so healthy meals too. Not just the healthy meals. If you want to have that dessert, then you need to plan for that cheesecake or ice cream.

Remember, we are BLENDING not BANNING right now. Maybe you’re not a dessert person and would rather have a glass of wine. So, what is your choice when you go out so that you don’t binge’ There is give and there is take. Have a healthy dinner and enjoy dessert, or indulge more in your dinner and do not have dessert. There is balance in this people, BALANCE!

GOLDEN TIP for when it comes to trying to decide whether to indulge in something or not. If you don’t love something, don’t indulge in it. If you love it then eat it! Just because you are out doesn’t mean you are obligated to overindulge in all the things if you don’t love it! So, ask yourself this question before you dive in. Pick and choose what you are going to indulge in!

The whole idea of having food freedom is not being stressed about meals. Rather than going into each weekday with a mindset of this is a clean eating day and then you come to the weekend and say this is the indulging day. Instead, go into every single day with the EXACT same mindset. How can you feed your body and how can you feed your soul’ These are the 2 biggest things to ask yourself every day! And if you don’t tell yourself you can’t have stuff, then that Friday meal won’t be overindulgent.

Repeat after me.. IT IS OKAY TO GO OUT TO EAT!! We want you to go out! We don’t want you to be afraid to go out to eat!!! You just have to be prepared and have the right mindset going into it!

Listen, when we restrict, are the habits you are putting in place right now ones that you can see yourself doing 1 year from now, 2 years from now. Etc’ Do you want to only indulge on the weekends and not do margaritas on a Tuesday with your girls’ OF COURSE, FREAKING NOT!!! I want you to have the freedom to be able to say “yes” to fun meals whenever the heck you want to and that’s because YOU CAN! You can enjoy yourself whenever you want to and it’s about finding the balance between everything.

Number 1 Step! GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION!!

We live in a self-imposed rules world, we made up these rules and a lot of my women are in their 40s and these rules have been around for a long freaking time for them. Trust me, I had a lot of rules and I had to slowly break the rules to get to where I wanted to be. It’s all about experimenting with things that work and what does not work. But you have to give yourself permission to break up with these rules and try something new.

So how do these women get out of food jail after 20 years’ First thing… go into every meal with that mindset. How can I fuel my body and fuel my soul’ Sometimes fueling your body wins and sometimes fielding your soul wins and comes back to the damn happy and damn healthy mentality. Damn happy is fueling your soul! (and this doesn’t always have to be food-related) and if you are sacrificing your happiness, you are sacrificing things that fuel your soul.  Shift your mindset going into meals and going into life.

Try something different and go into it with this new mindset and I think by doing that, people will start to realize that this whole idea of the balance does not mean restrict and binge, restrict and binge, this whole idea of balance means every day looks the same.

Sometimes that soul food is food, sometimes that soul food is exercise, sometimes that soul food is hanging out with your girls.

EVERY SINGLE meal that you eat, and every piece of food should taste pretty damn awesome! Food is meant to be enjoyed. If that food you put into your mouth is good and you thoroughly enjoy it, then the need for a cheat meal doesn’t necessarily feel like a need anymore. If you don’t enjoy what you are eating every day, then of course the cheat meals are going to turn into binge mode!!! We get bored so easily! So make sure you are switching up your food and making it good!! Don’t eat shit that is boring. If you are bored with your food, you are going to overindulge.

Increase the variety of food in your day. The monotonous eating style of meal prepping the same thing over and over again leads to the binging and the cheat meals, which of course then leads to guilt. There are women that I know that legit eat the same thing day in and day out for decades!! And if that works for you and you don’t have that constant binge then this is amazing!! But if you’re finding that you are doing this and every single weekend is a binge and guilt trip on Sunday, then it’s a time to change!

Now, I don’t want you to think you have to change all of these things pick something easy to start out with!! Breakfast, lunch or dinner, what is the easier of the 3 to try and switch up first’ And please do not make this into another rule, this should be a super simple switch. We tend to try and do too much too fast and then we fall off of the wagon, so please remember to start slow with something and do one step at a time. This is a process just like anything else you do so take it slow and only do what you can to start with!

We want you to have a cheat meal and not let it snowball and release the hounds!! That is our goal for you when trying to break the cycle that you have created! But listen when I tell you this magic makers, those days of shaming yourself are behind ussss!!!!  And we don’t want that any more for you guys!!  You got this!! I have total faith ladies!

What is one thing that makes you feel magical’

In my personal life, the one thing that makes me feel most magical is unplugged fun and just laughter time with my family. Nothing lights me up more than that. We have a big family and extended family, and we are all intertwined and amazing and that lights me up and makes me feel magical. If I could do anything for the rest of my life would be spending time with my family.

My professional life that makes me feel the most magical is when I witness a woman on the other end having that click as far as finding their happy, healthy self. The reason I created this brand and damn happy, damn healthy mentality was because I got so sick and tired of seeing women after women just struggling with their health and fitness and making it feel like it’s a grind and feel like it’s frustrating. So, it’s really magical for me to see someone all of a sudden have that switch flick and they just get it. -Chelsea Kaller

LINKS

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Lean and Sexy Over 40 —A 30 Day consistency challenge designed for women over 40 to help you master your metabolism and lose the stubborn fat once and for all.

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