#147: Mindset & Practical Tips for Eating with Balance Over Easter!
Worried you’re going to go OTT over Easter and binge on all the chocolate and hot cross buns?
Want to try to prevent this so that you can eat with a little more balance, prevent the huge binges and wake up when Easter is over feeling great instead of heavy, bleh, bloated and 10 steps behind?
This episode is for you!
Links:
My hot cross buns recipe (+ 3 free chocolate recipes to download): click here
My podcast on alcohol tips: Episode 54
Download my FREE eBook with 4 15 minute meals: click here
Start your weight loss, gut healing and anti-inflammatory journey now with my 3 Week Body Reset
Continue your journey and figuring out YOUR own balance in the Health with Bec Tribe
Explore my free recipes & website: Click here
Follow me on instagram: @health_with_bec
Read This Episode:
In this episode today, I'm going to bring you something that's quite timely, which is tips for you to eat with balance and prevent the bingeing and stay on track over the Easter weekend, because it is the Wednesday before Easter and so many of you through Instagram and in the 3 Week Body Reset and in the Health with Bec Tribe, which are my two programs have been asking me for about a week for my best tips surrounding this and I always love to bring you what you want to hear so that's what I'm going to be talking about today to bring you some of my mindset tips, and a few practical tips as well.
Most are mindset because at the end of the day, like I say all the time, you can be told what to do, but I truly believe that it is mainly your mind that stops you and prevents you from doing what you want to do or causing you to fall off track and not stay aligned with your goals.
Now, before I get into this episode, I just want to thank you so much for all of your recent reviews. I've noticed a lot more coming through so thank you so much. It really helps to support me. It really shows me that you are enjoying it because I'm just talking to myself every week on here and in turn that inspires me to show up every week and to record an episode for you, which isn't ever a quick thing so it means the world to me when you support me and also share my episodes on your Instagram stories and tag me to spread the word. As a thank you because I do read each and every one, I'm just going to read one of the recent ones out with you …
This one is from Kimby 83 and this really made my day when I read it yesterday - “Bec's podcast and programs are absolutely incredible. The passion she has for sharing all of the science and reasons why, and making it so simple to understand. She really cares about helping women and has honestly changed my life. My mindset was really broken before I started listening to this with very much of an all-or-nothing approach to my diet. I've known for a long time that I needed to shift, but couldn't do it myself. I'm 55 episodes in, love that I can binge them by the way, and one month into her programs after a year of thinking about it and have not only changed my mindset, but honestly see this as the only way forward. There is no guilt, no slip ups. There is just positivity. I cannot thank Bec enough for all of the hard work that has gone into this podcast and her programs. I am so excited to see where I am in a year, which is amazing given I had all but given up hope that I would ever be healthy. Thank you, Bec”.
So Kimby 83, that means the world to me. That is everything that I want for women. I really love helping the women that nearly feel like giving up, feel like they've tried it all, can't get out of a rut and just need an approach that works and that they can actually maintain for life so that is my goal. That is my mission and I'm just so glad that this podcast can really inspire so many women, whether you're on my programs or not, but especially for the women that are in my programs, I'm just hearing more and more feedback lately that listening to the podcast, alongside your work with me in my paid programs, really helps you stay on track so it's really good feedback to hear and thank you so much.
If you haven't left me a rating and a review yet, it would mean the world to me, so you can either pause this episode now and do it or just wait until the end. I would be forever grateful.
So let's get into the episode for today about how to stay on track through the Easter holidays because we've got Good Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Easter Monday, and then I guess it rolls into the school holidays for a lot of you as well because a lot of people listening are mums and it's this time that seems to bring up lots of fear and anxiety, if you're trying to follow a healthy way of eating, to lose weight and you're scared that you're going to fall off track and it's also a time where a lot of people seem to binge and overeat and women are looking for ways to manage both of those things.
I want to just start by saying that I completely understand. I used to be a woman, or a young girl in my late teens to early twenties, where I was really finding my balance and I would absolutely get to Easter or Christmas or even just most weekends or when I would go away on a holiday and I would definitely have that all-or-nothing mindset and so it's taken me time to find my balance.
I'm sharing these tips through my own personal experiences, but also from working with thousands of women now with these exact issues to help them overcome them. I've had my business for nearly eight years now, which is really crazy to think about so I just want to say that I understand and I was there and I've definitely overcome it now. The first thing that is my absolute best piece of mindset advice for you and look, this takes time. You might hear this today and you might try it this weekend and it might not work and that's okay. A lot of the things that I talk about in this podcast come over time. It took me a few years to find my balance and to not “slip up” and overindulge and find that balance between enjoying myself on holiday or at Easter time or whatever, but not going OTT so that I'd feel so crap the next week and guilt and shame and all of that.
The first piece of advice is a mindset one. This is the most powerful thing that I could really get into your ears today - think of Easter as any other weekend. By that, I mean in your mind, really practice telling yourself that it's just any other weekend, because it really is. Yes, it's Easter on the calendar. Yes, it means that it's more time with family and friends, which is beautiful. It's a great time to all gather and socialise more and do Easter egg hunts with your kids. I used to love that when I was a kid by the way, it was absolutely my favourite holiday of the year when I was a kid and I could just eat as much chocolate as I want, not gain weight and it was all fine. So yes, it is a holiday in that way, but just getting that connotation of it being a holiday and associating that with bingeing on chocolate and eating heaps of food, it can just be a made up thing in your mind. So what I'm trying to say is in your mind, tell yourself - yeah, it's Easter, but it's just any other weekend on the calendar.
If you've been listening to me for a while, you would know this so well. If you've done my 3 Week Body Reset or if you're in the Health with Bec Tribe, which is step two after the 3 Week Body Reset, you know that I always preach a healthy life and losing weight and finding your balanced weight and keeping it off doesn't mean a perfect life. So what I mean by that is I encourage you with my approach, and this is what I do myself too, to absolutely eat a bit more, eat what you like, indulge a bit a couple of times a week. Usually that's over the weekend, that's usually when it works for most people. So that's how I've designed my programs but I'm all about the 80/20 approach and having a little bit of chocolate or eating a bit more or having a few drinks.
Yes, it's going to make your calories a little bit higher for a couple of days but it's all about what you do 80% of the time, even 70% of the time, maybe Easter weekend you might be eating healthy 60% of the time but as a general rule that I try to say - on a week by week basis, the 80/20 approach always wins and having room to eat a little bit more is really good for your metabolism. You don't want to be in a calorie deficit every day of the week. You also don't want to be trying to be in a calorie deficit and pushing yourself with gym and thinking you have to cook food at home every single day of the week. You don't have to do that to get results and one of the things that helps women overcome this mindset is me always reminding you that it's actually not good for your metabolism to be in that calorie deficit ongoing for so long because it can make your metabolism slow down.
Not only that, we want to enjoy life. We want to enjoy what we're doing and if we're not allowing ourselves to eat a bit more some days or go out for dinner or have some drinks with friends, then we're missing out on the joys of life and as soon as you're not enjoying your routine on a week by week, month by month basis with the health routine that you set yourself, then it'll backfire. You won't be able to stick to it for long and so setting up that mindset of having that 80/ 20 approach and allowing yourself to go out for meals, eat foods that you wouldn't normally eat, have a bit more alcohol than you'd normally have through the week, that is actually such a good thing for you. So hopefully if you've been listening to me for a while, or if you've done my programs, hopefully you're starting to get into that mindset anyway.
If you're starting to get into that mindset, then why should the Easter weekend be any different? People say to me - what are your best tips for Easter and what do I do? Honestly, that is my best one. I'm going to be giving you a few more, but just think about it as any weekend. As soon as I got rid of the “it's a holiday, I'm going to overindulge and then I have to restrict afterwards”, I started to eat with so much more balance and that does take time because there's so much work in the lead up to that, there's so many things that prevent over eating on the weekend and I've got lots of other podcasts on that, it's really about forming the right habits, Monday to Friday, or in your 80% window that are almost so enjoyable that you don't feel the need to rebel on the weekends anyway.
So the way that you're eating through the week should be full of yummy food. Yes, it might be a slight calorie deficit, but it should be full of foods that are keeping you full. You should still be eating foods that you love and this is exactly what I teach women in my programs. So when you're doing that through the week, that also reduces your chance of wanting to rebel on the weekends and you get used to how good it feels to just eat the way that you've learnt to eat for your body and you don't want to rebel anyway.
I just really want to get in your heads to try to approach it and go into it as any other weekend. We're all different. Maybe you want to have a bit more alcohol? Maybe you want to go out for dinner or lunch with your friends and just give yourself permission and treat it as any other weekend rather than thinking - oh my god, it's a holiday, I'm going to overindulge every day and then I'm going to restrict afterwards.
My second mindset tip that absolutely works a treat as well, but can take time too is to - always think ahead! Take some time - maybe listening to this podcast is your time, but maybe after this podcast, you just want to actually sit down and really think about it. You might even want to write it down on paper because that really helps to start to reflect on how you felt last year on Easter or how you felt at Christmas or the last time you had a long weekend and if you are someone that's prone to bingeing, think back to those times and reflect on how you felt after that weekend.
So when it got to the Monday or the Tuesday after a four day holiday, or when it got to whenever it was, it depends how long your holiday went for and how long you're overindulged for, really sit in the feels of how it made you feel? Did you feel bloated for days? Did you feel like you gained a whole heap of weight? Did you feel lethargic? From all those feelings, did you feel lots of guilt because you're so used to maybe trying to form a healthy life for yourself, but you just fully went off the rails and you felt lots of guilt for it because you're feeling crap again? Really think back to those moments and use those feelings that you remember to then forward-think before you go into Easter is one of the key things that absolutely helped me and helped so many women as well.
So there's two steps with that, really think about how you felt the last time it was Easter or the last time it was Christmas or whenever it was that you overindulged over a holiday period and then say to yourself - is it worth feeling like that again after my four day Easter weekend? Is it really worth it or is it worth just eating with a bit more balance, making a few better choices and staying on track with your healthy life, give or take a few overindulgences over the weekend which I always say, is fine, it's all about 80/ 20, but what is going to be better for you? So really try to think of that long term feeling rather than that short term gratification on the day that has always helped me and it takes time. Like I said, you might try this weekend and still binge, but the more you practice this mindset of looking back, reflecting on how you felt and then thinking about - do I really want to feel this? Is it worth it to feel like this on Monday or Tuesday, whenever it is? Honestly, that can really help so much.
For me, I honestly got so sick of just feeling way heavier, feeling super bloated, feeling super lethargic, and just not feeling like myself after an indulgent holiday period. I just got to the point after a few years of doing it, that I was like, what is the point? It makes me feel crap. I'm the kind of woman that gains weight very easily and then it takes me weeks to lose. I’m finding it easier to manage my weight these days because I'm on thyroid medication after getting diagnosed with a slow thyroid when I was 23. I'm also doing a lot more weight training, so my metabolism is getting faster and faster but even still, I do gain weight really easily if I'm not conscious and then it just takes me ages to lose.
I'm also sick of just restricting myself if I ever gain weight. I lose weight slowly. So let's say again, two kilos in five days, it then might take me at least three or four weeks to lose that and I just really got sick of how easy and quick it is to gain weight and then how long it can be for a lot of women to lose it. So that's the other thing that I always remind myself of and I'm always conscious of and because I've been doing this for years now, I don't have to be as conscious of it because it's just becoming part of my life, but I still have to be conscious every day, every weekend, every time it hits Easter and Easter for me personally, maybe it's because I've got the mindset where it's just any other weekend, but Easter for me is just like any other weekend.
I don't have heaps of chocolate around me. I don't really do Easter egg hunts with the family at all anymore. I'm a bit too old for that, but I'm actually going to Sydney this weekend and not even celebrating Easter at all. I'm just going to go and have some fun with my friends and then work there the week after, and it's just honestly going to be like any other weekend where I'll be using lots of the tips that I use for when I travel, which is in lots of my other podcast episodes. So they are my best two mindset tips, especially if you're prone to overeating.
Then with the practical side of things, it's really hard to give practical advice to you because obviously we're all so different in terms of some of us want to drink alcohol, some of us don't, some of us do want to have some chocolate, some of us don't, but I'm going to try my best here to give you some tips on how to eat with balance over the Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday because that's what most people do have off and that's what most people are celebrating and thinking of as a holiday.
One of my tips is to - try to eat home cooked meals, meals that you would normally eat through the week as much as you can. By that I mean when it's in your control, when you can cook yourself or prepare the food yourself and saying “I don't have time, I'm away, I'm doing this, I'm doing that”, trust me, you do have time. You might just need to prep some things ahead of time, or add some things onto the grocery list. If you're going to a holiday destination with some friends, really take the time to plan what can my breakfast be or what can some of my lunches be?
I'm sure a lot of you won't be doing breakfast out, lunch out, dinner out, snacks out, drinks out for four days in a row. Usually there is some room in there where you can eat home cooked meals yourself and they can be easy. It might be making some chia puddings for breakfast or it might be like having a salad for lunch. Try as best as you can for the times that you're not going out to eat food that is healthy.
We're all so different, so let's say you're on my programs - choose your favourite meals from my programs and try to eat them when you can, because that is in your control and then when you go out, just definitely give yourself permission to eat more. The act of going out and ordering restaurant food anyway is always going to be a little bit more calorific, even if you choose the healthier options but if you're trying to stay on track with your health and your weight loss goals or your weight maintenance, I always say to people to try to really choose the protein and veg or the protein and salad.
A really quick alcohol tip as well - I've got a whole podcast on alcohol (Episode #12: Does Alcohol *Really* Slow Down Weight Loss?). Something that I personally like to do is choose the lower-sugar, lower-calorie drinks. I still love drinks like a margarita or a Campari spritz and yes, they have more calories than a vodka soda, but like I always say, it's really good to enjoy yourself too. So what I personally like to do is the majority of the time, it depends how much I'm drinking. If I was just going to have one drink a day, I would have whatever I want. If I was going to be having more than one, maybe two, three or sometimes four, sometimes we want to party, if I'm going to have something like a wine or a Campari spritz or a margarita, I'll just try to have one or two of those drinks and then anything after that will be a spirit with soda water or diet tonic. If you're ordering out, that's hard to get so always aim for soda, but that is going to be your lowest calorie drink if you're having quite a few or if you feel like you're going to be having a drink or two every day for four days, then you might want to go for the lowest calorie options as much as you can, which is the spirit and soda.
When I'm at home or if you're at a friend's house, something that I love to do is have gin or vodka with some diet tonic or some soda water and some fresh berries. That is a super yummy drink to have. I also love having Campari soda and orange, that's another one of my favourite light drinks to have. So there's some alcohol tips there.
Look, if you are on my programs, there are so many women that say that they've remained weight on holidays or through Easter or whatever they've done through just following my principles as much as they can and then using the ‘Dining Out Guide’ which you all have in the 3 Week Body Reset to just make the best choices when they're out at restaurants. A lot of these women are still having a couple of drinks a day and they come back and they remain weight, so that brings me on to my next tip, which is actually like a mindset tip and that is to - take the pressure off weight loss over Easter or any holiday period.
Just make your goal maintenance because you do need to enjoy yourself and if you go into Easter thinking - I'm not going to eat any sugar, I'm not going to drink any alcohol, I want to lose weight through this period … look, if you want to do that, you can, but a lot of the time that can set you up for wanting to rebel. So sometimes the more strict we are with ourselves, when we tell ourselves we can't have things, it makes us want it more. Unfortunately, it is an area of life in a lot of ways that people can fall in the trap of so give yourself permission to just eat with balance and remain weight and then you can keep going with what you're doing, your healthy life, the week after the Easter weekend is over.
What about chocolate binges? A lot of you are asking, how do I not binge on chocolate or how do I not overeat on the hot cross buns? I've got two pieces of advice here -
If you are not a binge eater, if you are not prone to overeating at this time of the year, what I'm going to be talking about doesn't really relate to you. If that's you, what I've said in the podcast so far is going to help you so much. Just know that if it’s little bit of chocolate, a hot cross bun, a few drinks, it's fine. You will be fine. You're not going to ruin your progress. You'll remain weight and you'll be fine. Just allow yourself to have it.
If you are someone that is prone to bingeing, one of my tips of advice that can work for a lot of women is to actually try to swap the chocolate or the hot cross buns with a sugar-free healthier alternative. Now, there are a few reasons for this. I've actually just shared an Instagram reel about this so definitely check it out if you haven't already! If you're not following me yet on Instagram, my name is @health_with_bec and I'm sharing so much stuff there all the time but swapping the real deal, so a hot cross bun with a hot cross bun that is sugar-free, far lower in refined carbohydrates and a bit higher in fiber, like the one that I have on my website (Recipe - Hot Cross Buns), if you swap that, it feels like you're still eating the real deal right? I don't want you to miss out on the beauty of Easter and the joy.
When you swap it to that, you get a very slow and steady blood sugar response and it actually keeps you full. What that means is afterwards you are less likely to crave more and overeat that day compared to a real hot cross bun, which is really high in sugar and high in refined carbohydrates, even though it might have the same amount of calories as the one on my website, it's all about what it does to your body afterwards. Eating something that's really high in sugar and high in refined carbohydrates, like a regular hot cross bun, is going to give you a blood sugar high so your body digests it really fast. You get this spike in your blood sugar. It only keeps you full for a very small amount of time and then after that you get a crash. When you get the crash, your body goes - oh my god, I want more! Also, sugar is very addictive and it's going to be very hard for you to just stick with one, so it almost sets your body up to want to binge all day if you do choose to eat sugar in the form of real chocolate or a real hot cross bun.
So if you're really looking to not binge and not eat heaps of chocolate and a whole packet of hot cross buns and feel crap then I would suggest swapping it for a healthier alternative, like the one on my website or opting for dark chocolate that is over 85% in cocoa because the higher the chocolate is in its cocoa percentage, the lower amount of sugar there is in it. There's not much sugar at all in dark chocolate if it's over 85% and you could get some Easter eggs or some chocolate and enjoy that because that is not going to give you that blood sugar high and the resulting crash and cause you to keep overeating throughout the rest of the day.
So my tip there is to really find the healthier alternatives to your favourite foods, the sugar free alternatives to your favourite foods so that you don't feel like you're missing out, which is important but you are setting your body up to get less cravings throughout the day. So that is one of my best pieces of advice for the binge eaters as well.
Now, another tip is - how you set yourself up in the morning. I truly believe that some morning movement and some time to really just be by yourself and reflect on how you want to act throughout the day can really help you as well. Sometimes when you wake up and you don't think about it, you just end up eating everything in sight. So, really take the time over Easter to move your body, preferably by yourself so that you just have time to ground yourself, think about your goals, think about what I said at the beginning, which is how you felt last time you might've had a binge eating episode or last Easter and how you want to feel after the holiday period.
So setting yourself up right at the start of the day with exercise. Also, maybe some journaling about your goals, how you're feeling, how you want to feel next week, how you felt last time it was Easter, even just writing that down can really help as well. So setting your day up in the morning can help you as well and movement is great. Obviously movement's great too because let's say you are eating more Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday - exercise helps you burn calories too, so that's another tool that you can use throughout Easter to help you maintain some of your balance.
You can't outrun a bad diet. You can't just go to the gym and then think that you can overeat for four days and the exercise negates it. It's not true, but it absolutely helps a little bit for sure. So if you know that you're going to be eating more for four days in a row, just really be conscious to keep up your exercise, go for some long walks, go to the gym, book in Pilates, whatever it is that you enjoy doing, make sure you keep that exercise up because that helps as well. Just because you're not having a “perfect day” in your calorie deficit and full of whole foods and no sugar and all that - I used to think that if I wasn't having a day like that, there's no point exercising and I don't know why because it doesn't make any sense, but if you are going to be eating more, obviously exercise burns calories. Why would you not move at all and burn no calories if you're going to be eating more calories. It just doesn't make any sense.
So anyway, if you were like me with that weird mindset in the past, just tell yourself to move your body because that's absolutely going to help as well with the calorie balance in terms of weight management, but also with your mindset for the day ahead.
Finally, I think I should have mentioned this with my tip earlier about swapping hot cross buns to the ones on my website or eating dark chocolate instead of the regular milk chocolate but take the time to cook other yummy, sweet, chocolate things that are sugar-free so that you do have things in your fridge or in your pantry that you can take to events or that you can take to the holiday house that you're going to or that you can just have around so that you can eat those instead of the real deal, and this is the same advice that I was giving earlier in the podcast about swapping the hot cross buns, but that is going to really keep your cravings at bay for the rest of the day, but also be satisfying your sweet tooth at the same time and that's what I'm all about. I'm all about helping you find alternatives to your favourite foods.
When you go to the hot cross bun recipe on my website, when you click on that recipe down the bottom, there is a form that you can fill out where you get three free chocolate recipes that you can cook for Easter. So cook one, cook two, cook three, make it a fun thing with your kids. Your kids will love them too. Also, your kids will be way less hyperactive as well so that you can enjoy those and not feel like you're missing out and that will definitely help you hopefully prevent the binge as well.
I don't want to overwhelm you but what I would do now, if you haven't already - I would sit down and make a bit of a plan for yourself. What are the times that you can cook meals yourself or prepare meals yourself or how can you do that? How can you bring things along to whatever you're going to so that you are in control of the times that you can choose what you put in your mouth? Make a bit of a plan in that way. Go onto my website and make my hot cross buns recipe and also go down to the bottom and download those three chocolate recipes so that you've got sweet things in your house, take the time to do that.
Go buy the ingredients, do some cooking, make it fun, play some music, do it with your kids. It's a great thing to do. I would also make sure that you put in your calendar that you're going to do some sort of morning movement and I would also journal and write down how you felt the last time you overindulged and how it made you feel on the Monday after and re-read that every morning that you wake up over the Easter weekend so that you remind yourself of it and you forward think to how you don't want to feel on the Monday.
I really hope that you are filled with some ideas to help you eat with balance over Easter. Remember to aim for weight maintenance. Don't aim for perfection and if you don't get it right, it doesn't matter. You've got your next holiday to reflect on this time and try better the next time. Finding your balance truly does take time so be easy on yourself, enjoy yourself over Easter. I hope you have a beautiful time with your friends or family or both. I hope you eat some really yummy food.
If you are looking to really learn how to lose weight, eat with balance, quit the yo-yo dieting, get rid of the bloat, check out my programs and I really do teach you in them how to live this 80/ 20 life , rather than just listening to all of my tips on these podcasts. If you dive straight into my programs, you actually learn exactly how it's done with laid out meal plans, so much education, and it truly is changing women's lives. If you're already on them, keep going, think of it as any other weekend. You've got your freedom meals. You know that you will be fine. Sending so much love to you all.
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