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E16: What to do when your Routine is THROWN - holiday style
59 Plays2 years ago
Ohhh, the holidays. A time of parties, travel, hosting, and shifting out of the day to day norm.
Honestly, this applies in times of bbq’s, wedding season, travel, eating out, and more.
So, if you have ever felt stressed around events, out of control, fear of backsliding or just confused as to how to navigate events, travel, or even vacation while not compromising your progress - listen in!
I’m giving you my birds eye view considerations, top tips to set you up for success, and my BIGGEST tool to help folks navigate their times of being thrown out of routine.
www.theresemartinezrd.com - Grab your FREE guide to improving hunger cues!
Please remember nothing you hear on this podcast should be taken as medical advice. Please consult your healthcare practitioner before making changes.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Eating Between the Lines'
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Eating Between the Lines. I am your host, Therese Martinez, and I am so happy to have you here. If you want to untangle yourself from diet culture conditioning and get appropriate, actionable options to nourish your unique life and body, I'm going to dive deep into the nuanced spectrum of health to help you figure out what to prioritize in your journey
00:00:25
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without getting trapped in the extreme ideology of health optimization or total complacency.
Navigating Events and Health Goals
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I am here to help you apply the science effectively, not rigidly, and get you feeling better in your body and mind. Here is how to eat between the lines.
00:00:46
Speaker
Hello, hello. Welcome back to eating between the lines. I am your host to Reese Martinez, registered dietician and certified personal trainer. I am so very excited to talk about this topic. I think I say that every single podcast episode, but this one feels particularly
00:01:10
Speaker
Interesting given the season, I honestly was not even planning on talking about this, but I have had so many people bring this up and it makes sense. I honestly talk about this all year round though. So this is all about navigating the holidays, vacations, and
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events that come up.
Impact of Events and Travel on Health Routines
00:01:36
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The reason that I hear a lot about this is because of the anxiety people tend to feel around backsliding, losing control, the stress that comes with potentially being around food and temptations and feeling like they need to have strategies around these occasions in order to
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continue making progress with their health and with their patterns of intake. And while I absolutely understand all of those things, I also always like to shed light on considerations when it comes to events and travel and, you know, occasions that are a little bit more unique in a person's world.
Empowerment and Mindful Food Choices
00:02:27
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So I want to go over
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the considerations. I also want to go over tips and strategies for some of these occasions that I do find very, very beneficial and very useful. I also want to give you guys my most favorite strategy and kind of a little bit of like a homework assignment or at least something for you to reflect on for your own
00:02:54
Speaker
trips, vacations, times when you are out of routine in the near future. So to start here, as a person becomes more in tune with their body and how foods affect them, as they become more aware and they develop more mindfulness with intake, I just want to note that this all gets a lot easier.
Practical Tools for Balanced Health Strategies
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because you can get more proactive and intentional because you understand the repercussions of the decisions that you're making.
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that doesn't mean that you won't make the decisions, right? It just gives you more empowerment to make them with intention and kind of understand your body and your body's responses. This is what building connection to your body looks like. There's no right way. I feel like even when I said repercussions, I like felt this little twinge in my body, almost of like how it seems negative and it's not supposed to be like negative.
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It's supposed to be an understanding how sometimes making
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dietary choices just impact you in a way that is maybe not a stellar. And it's also sometimes very beneficial for your relationship with food, engagement with other people, experience of food and flavor and life. And so I just like to shed light on all of that first and foremost. And if this feels like an overwhelming,
00:04:28
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process to you, please know that it does get easier with additional strategies and implementation of an application of practice.
Effects of Holiday Indulgence on Routine
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So this podcast is kind of aimed at helping you discover tools that can help with that and weigh the pros and cons around certain situations and circumstances.
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So when I am referencing events, I kind of just want to take a second to paint the picture of what this looks like so that we can kind of be on the same page with what I'm referencing and how I see a lot of patients and clients show up with their concerns around these things.
00:05:13
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So given the fact that it is December 2023, I have seen a lot of folks that are doing a lot more holiday gatherings and holiday parties and where there's a lot of food around and drink around. And the frequency of this is more than usual.
Managing Indulgence and Routine Balance
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I believe it was the last podcast one back here, but
00:05:41
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I talked about this concept of the 5% and this is always something I like to address first and foremost to help folks really get a bird's eye view of their intake and understand how influential these single events really truly are to their whole life. So if you think about a person that eats three meals a day,
00:06:08
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And on the weekend is has a holiday party on Saturday. So if they are having this one dinner out of the 21 meals, that's going to be 5% of their week. So very rarely am I honing in on these unique situations for individuals. I am instead reflecting and reviewing what they have been doing, the bulk of their routine for the bulk of the week. Right. And.
00:06:38
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really dissecting how that has gone and how that looks like for them and how that is developing patterns of intake versus getting too caught up in this one single event. Now, if a person consumes a lot of food that doesn't sit with them well, if they consume a lot of alcohol or things like that, stay up really late and that it impacts the next day and maybe their ability to get intentional about their intake for the week, like grocery shop, plan prep, things like that.
Health Focus During Routine Disruptions
00:07:08
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Now there is a trickle over effect and we kind of strategize for that. That's a little bit about what I'm talking about today, but I always like to bring people back to the bulk of your routine. Focus on the bulk of your routine. Even if that means just like regular breakfast and lunches, right? That's 66% of your intake. And if we are roughly aiming for an 80 20 ratio, which
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somewhat general, and I don't always love that concept, but it can be a rough gauge. Then if you're at 66%, you've only needed like a handful of dinners to be aligned with 80, 80% of the time, a little bit more aligned with your intake. Now, again, I don't love having the rigidity and like the ratio calculations and such, but I do think that having that perspective is really more of my point here where that one.
00:08:05
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Event is not going to be the demise to your health. What is the bulk of your intake? So with that said, I definitely understand that there are some seasons of life where routine gets really thrown and it's more than just that Saturday. And it's more than just that holiday party, the one time or the couple of times in December. So when that's the case, I want to go over some considerations with these events.
Common Obstacles and Solutions at Events
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And, and help with some strategies to set you up for success with intention and not having rigidity and restriction. So let's first kind of paint the picture. So I'm first going to talk about events. We'll also talk a little bit more about travel and routine, but specifically with events here, you know, what is happening? What is happening with these events? Let's paint this picture. So one.
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food is outside of your plan, quote unquote, you know, maybe it's potluck style food that. Doesn't align necessarily with things that you might cook at home. Maybe the food is super duper heavy and the courses are heavy, you know, maybe a higher fat and carbohydrate content. Maybe there's more alcohol than what you usually consume and that's around. So this is the first kind of obstacle that we see. Right. And then.
00:09:27
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We see stress, stress around the food, stress around being social for many people. There can be tendency for you to want to keep your hands busy. And the best way to do that is to consume food, right? The food around reach for the potluck style foods and, or continue to reload your plate, drink more alcohol, right? Like kind of that sort of mechanism of coping with the stress is very common at parties.
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And so there can be a feeling of losing control,
Success Tips for Events
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right? So there's the stress and then there's the loss of control that kind of comes with the coupling of the food that's outside of the plan, the social anxiety, and just your belief that you will lose control in this situation. So what that can lead to is you feeling not so great after and.
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It may turn into a whole slew of things, right? You might feel like you want to restrict to the next day. You may feel like you need to overcompensate with exercise. You may feel like you want to restrict at the event and avoid overeating in general. So you would develop this preoccupation of food.
00:10:43
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at the event, you're not as present and engaged. Maybe you feel really guilty and shameful the next day and feel like all is lost, right? Very common with the all or nothing approach. So consider these tips for setting yourself up for success. So number one, I see this a lot where folks will restrict their food and save their calories for these types of events. I would really encourage a person to not do this. It,
00:11:12
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tends to
Balancing Cravings and Nutrient-Dense Foods
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really set a person up to over-consume food to the degree where they are very uncomfortable at these events. And honestly, you still need nourishment throughout the day. It is not a bad thing to still feed yourself breakfast and lunch and get ready to enjoy additional foods you don't usually have at the party.
00:11:38
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I especially like to focus on foods that are particularly nourishing for me. They're kind of like the go to the sure things, right? Where I know I consume them. I know I feel good. This is one of those things that can take some time to figure out for you, especially if you're someone kind of, uh, reestablishing your relationship with food, it can be kind of hard to note what makes you feel good.
00:12:01
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But also if you're craving certain foods that maybe are not foods that give you a lot of energy and feel very nutritious, it can be kind of hard to balance what to do. And I just want you to know that it looks different for everyone. And I'm not saying you have to eat foods that are extremely nutrient
Intentional Food Choices and Preparation
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dense. This is looks different for every person with what they find.
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appealing and appropriate for them. So I just find that when it comes to a day that I know things may be a little bit different in the evening with what my food choices are.
00:12:38
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I do like to prioritize some helpful options that can look like a loaded smoothie. It can look like a big fat like salad. It could also look like a deluxe oatmeal bowl, yogurt bowls, things that I know are palatable and well-balanced and definitely provide a solid amount of nutrition for my body that I want, right?
00:13:06
Speaker
So this isn't like to force feed yourself healthy foods to kind of combat unhealthy foods later. Let's just be clear on that. This is making food choices with intentionality because you want to feel good. You want to nourish your body and you're not entirely sure what's going to be available later on in the evening. And so it can help to just have a little bit of nutrition on board, right?
Exercise for Wellness, Not Compensation
00:13:31
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The next thing is, you know, when we think about going to parties that where there's a lot of extra food a lot of times or that we don't consume on a regular basis, et cetera, there are a lot of times we can think about earning our calories and working out to a certain degree that, uh, compensates for our consumption of food. And while I'm a big fan of workouts and I do also really like to have a workout when I am going to go to a party later on in the evening.
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And the purpose of moving my body that day is not to burn calories I'm consuming later on.
00:14:06
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The purpose is to promote feelings of wellness and energetics in my body. It's supposed to help me feel good in my body. And if I check in on the morning where I have an event later and I'm just really tired and not feeling great, if I'm sore, things like that, I will not force myself to have some crazy workout. I might move mindfully.
00:14:32
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with stretching and walking, but it's really important to understand how the energetics are around exercise are for you.
00:14:43
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in relation to compensatory means when it comes to eating out or these events and such.
Hydration and Wellbeing at Events
00:14:50
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Another one is staying hydrated. This is huge. I feel like this gets like, I don't know, part of me feels like a broken record saying this, but like seriously, staying hydrated really, really helps with hunger cues. Oh, that's the other thing with exercise too. Exercise is really beneficial in helping to regulate hunger cues as well. And so.
00:15:11
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It's super important to stay hydrated during these events that a lot of times things can have a little bit more sodium. Um, but it can really just benefit you to help regulate hunger cues and kind of listen to your body a little bit more. And also if you are consuming alcohol, it will be beneficial to stay hydrated. Alcohol can absolutely affect hunger cues. And so there can be a tendency to just.
00:15:39
Speaker
reach a lot more for foods when a person is drinking alcohol. And, you know, it kind of just creates a little bit more disengagement with the body. Uh, I also think that sugary drinks are very common at certain holiday events and those can also impact the body. So if you want
Mindful Eating and Hunger Connections
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a fun sugary drink, go for it. There are some really fun mocktails cocktails out there.
00:16:03
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And if you understand how those affect your body and you don't want to feel that way, just, you know, stay intentional or just make sure you have a big glass of water after, right?
00:16:14
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A huge part of what I find beneficial is plating your food. So especially if this is potluck style, this happened to me just the other day, actually, when I was home, I came home on a Sunday and we were kind of doing just like a snacky early dinner kind of potluck style intake. And I think the goal was to actually have a little bit more of a dinner after, but we just had so many snack foods that we were all just kind of munching.
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So I was cooking some things and munching throughout like a couple hours worth of time. And after like, I finally sat down, I was like kind of uncomfortably full, but I still didn't feel like I ate and I was particularly wanting protein. I was like, I didn't have like any protein munching around here, very little at least.
00:17:05
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And not the amount that I usually have knowing my own body and how it kind of responds really best, uh, with macronutrients and with my intake. Now you don't have to always have the same amount of macronutrients at every meal, of course, but it was just an interesting observation because that's where my mind went with. Oh, I usually have this much because I do know that that sets me up for success with my patterns of intake, satiety, hunger, cues, levels, et cetera.
00:17:33
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And I didn't have it. And so my, my mind was still like, wait, but we're not done yet. But my body was like, no, no, we're good. We ate. We are good to go.
Engagement Over Food Anxiety
00:17:45
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But I still got up and was like, try to find protein. And it was like to race.
00:17:49
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you are full, you are good. And then I was just like, yeah, what the heck am I doing? And I think a lot of that was because I just was taking bites here and there, here and there. And it just started adding up, but like my body and mind just really didn't make the connection of intake. And so I find it so helpful to like plate your food and just look at it for a minute and work on mindful eating, right?
00:18:15
Speaker
It doesn't mean grab one thing, put it on your plate and eat it. It means kind of fill your plate and eat from there. This is not to like regulate intake. And I want that to be clear too. We are not like trying to limit your food and by plating it, right? It's just trying to help the hunger connection with your body so that you don't get into a state of.
00:18:37
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feel a Nicki, right? I don't care if you refill your plate five times and if you do it with, you know, intentionality and enjoyment of the food. And then it's kind of up to you of to check in and see where you're at with your hunger, hunger with all of that.
Post-Event Routine Maintenance
00:18:57
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I also really encourage people to just engage with those around you, right? Try to stay present and notice those anxious tendencies around food and drink.
00:19:07
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The last one here is troubleshooting the next day. So if you are someone where sometimes you don't really know where the night can go, how late you can stay up with people, how you're going to feel based off the food the next day, sometimes troubleshooting and setting yourself up for success early is beneficial. So maybe you grocery shop the day of the event or the day before for the following week. If you're able to, I think that's awesome.
00:19:35
Speaker
So you can at least have stable groceries if you are not feeling like planning prepping shopping on Sunday or the next day. And that is one of those things, like I mentioned with the 5% that can have a tendency to trickle into the rest of the week. And so then that's how we can stay proactive with planning and prepping for that week. And we can work on promoting more consistency with our intake.
Daily Habits for Wellness Success
00:20:00
Speaker
Okay. So this last little bit is all about developing your recipe card. So your daily recipe card references your staple components and their routine that help promote success from a compound effect angle. Okay. So this looks like, what do you do? What are your habits in an ideal day that
00:20:28
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support your goals and are aligned with who you want to be down the line. Okay. So for example, I tend to like to get up early and well, for me, it's all relative.
00:20:44
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But I like to have enough time between when I get up and when I start work so that I can chill out and do a little reading to get my mind right for the day. I can stretch a little bit. I can space out with my coffee for a hot minute and I can feel a little bit more prepared going into my work day. I also like to have a nice balanced breakfast and
00:21:11
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have a bit of water, right? So for me, it's a little bit of what my personal morning looks like. And then additionally, it's having lunch and dinner balanced and intentional. It's moving my body at some point, whether that's going on a walk or two or going to the gym.
00:21:29
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And it's also doing something that gives me juice. So whether that's cooking a fun dinner, hanging out with my sweetie, reading a foofy novel, drawing, stretching, et cetera. So I like to kind of take this from an angle of what can you do physically and mentally.
00:21:47
Speaker
to put all your recipe card, right? The whole idea with this is that these are the habits and behaviors that can set you up for more resilience throughout your day, right? We can't control what the weather's going to be like. We can't control other people. We can't control so much.
00:22:04
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But if we can have components of our day that can be consistent, that support a foundation for ourself, our mind and body, it's very powerful moving forward.
Applying Habits to Travel and Events
00:22:20
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And so when you are thrown into situations like the holidays or vacations or trips and things like that,
00:22:27
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I think it's really beneficial to take your recipe card and see what you can apply from that recipe card into your other days with intentionality and mindfulness, right? Sometimes you want to just do what you want to do on these vacations and trips. And there is no shame in that. I just find that a lot of times when there can be
00:22:50
Speaker
parts of that recipe card applied to certain even vacations or I don't know, maybe you're going home for a little bit of time or hosting people for a little bit of time during the holiday season.
00:23:07
Speaker
What is it that you can do that will still set you up for feeling better in your body? And that looks different for everyone, right? If I'm going on vacation and there are a whole slew of tons of different restaurants and I have no idea how they're all going to make me feel. And I don't really want to prioritize movement. That's my own choice. And it's just helpful to be intentional with it.
00:23:31
Speaker
For me, I do know that it can help a lot sometimes, and sometimes it just doesn't fit in the schedule for vacation itinerary, and that's okay too, right? So what is possible to apply? Like, can I stay hydrated? Can I prioritize one healthful meal in the day?
00:23:52
Speaker
Can I offer to bring something to the potluck or to the event so that there is something that is comfortable for me to consume while I'm also possibly enjoying the other food too? Can I go to sleep early? Can I prioritize waking up early? And what is it from your recipe card that you can take to these other situations and scenarios and, you know, even potentially vacation?
Routine Focus Over Special Occasions
00:24:19
Speaker
So I, I never liked to get really rigid when it comes to eating out and how to order food so that you have like appropriate, I don't know, macro nutrient balance and, and nutrition. I always really like people to take advantage of unique circumstances and listen to their body and, and order what they want and maybe not even unique circumstances, right? It just really depends on the individual and what they're looking for and their own personal
00:24:49
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needs and goals and where they're at with their relationship with food. And also just think that we have to bring it back to the bulk of our routine and what that looks like the majority of the time and why that is helpful to us.
00:25:06
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Right? Not the shitting on us, not because we need to or have to in order to be healthy, but really understanding the why and how it does support us and how it does support our future selves. If that is something we are wanting, right? I think many are, but I don't know. Don't want to project this as any assumptions on folks. So consider those tips for the events.
00:25:34
Speaker
And that goes for the barbecues in the summer. It goes for the birthday parties, the weddings, all of that. Also, I highly recommend creating your own recipe card and considering what it is that you can take from that recipe card into the out of routine times that you may encounter at
00:25:53
Speaker
going into the end of the year and next year, it can be so powerful to have some intentionality, right? Otherwise you are being reactive and impulsive. And that's where we get on the other side of our food intake, not feeling good. And I just want people to feel better in their bodies and understand how to take proactive approaches while not being restricted and restrictive and rigid and feeling like,
00:26:20
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You can't enjoy all of the many wonderful pleasures that food has to offer.
Conclusion and Invitation to Connect
00:26:25
Speaker
So I hope this is helpful. Let me know what you think and I will catch you guys next time. Thank you so much for listening today. If you found this information valuable, please share this episode and give it a review. They truly help a ton. If you want additional support and information, you can head over to my website, teresmartinezrd.com.
00:26:50
Speaker
where you can snag my free guide on how to improve your hunger signals, get on my email list for regular juicy content, or apply for the next round of my signature program, restoring nutrition intuition. Otherwise, Instagram at Teresa Martinez RD or my Facebook group Fed Fit and Fad Free Nutrition with Teresa are always places for more content and support. Until next time.