My 10 year Health Plan

YEAH, YOU READ THAT RIGHT, I GAVE MYSELF 10 YEARS TO GET TO THE HEALTHY LIFESTYLE I WANT.

Growing up I had a terrible relationship with food. I hated eating. Inevitably, I ended up loving less than 10 foods and most were chocolate-based. Needless to say, by the time I was in my mid 20s, I knew I had to do something different to build a healthier body for my kids.

And so the seed for my 10 year health plan began to take root.

When I pictured the body and healthy lifestyle I wanted, I mapped out all the steps I’d need to take and knew it was going to take me a while to get there.

So I gave myself 10 years. Think it’s a little extreme? Maybe. But I’ll walk you through how I broke down each stage and the accomplishments I wanted to have.

The birth of my health plan

It all started when I was 25 years old and just about to get married. The big thing was that we knew in the next couple of years we wanted to have kids.

But my body was not a healthy body. I hated food. And I mean H-A-T-E-D food. The only food that was palatable was chocolate. Everything else I forced myself to eat.

I was a child picky eater and by my mid-20s I was still only eating about 20 different foods. Eating so little variety also meant that I was never able to follow a meal plan. I would be 35 years old before I had actually was able to do that!

I was so disconnected from my body I had no idea how food affected me (if at all). By far the worst part was not knowing what to believe when I would read things up online. It seemed like two different professionals would say two opposite things, yet quote the same study.

I was overwhelmed and had no idea where to start. Most of all, I was freaking out that I did not have a healthy body to grow my babies and that somehow I’m already not giving them the best start in life. (I blame reading into epigenetics for that paranoia!)

_____________________

EXERCISE: Where have you been?

I want you to take a minute to ponder your own health journey.

I’m not a fan of dwelling on the negatives. Yet, by looking at what we don’t want, it serves the purpose to clarify what we do want. I learned from Abraham in this video, that it’s still a great exercise to have a look at what you don’t want, then focus on what you do want.

Where have you been? Are there any area your body is asking you to pay attention? Are there any health goals that you find appealing to pursue?

When you close your eyes, and picture yourself in perfect health, what does that look like? What do you feel like? How do you long to feel inside your body?

Your health journey is your own. If it takes you 6 months or years, it doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that you start to formulate an idea of how you want to feel, move and be in your body. Then take action.

Run when you can. Walk when you need to. And crawl when you must.

_____________________

10 Year Plan –> YEAR 2 👇

This next phase started in year 2 and it is always ongoing because we never are quite done having fun exploring all the culinary wonders across the world.

I had to add new foods to my diet. ASAP. I had just given birth and pretty soon I’d have to start my baby on solids.

I enrolled in the SOS approach to feeding training programs for professionals and discovered an entire world dedicated to adding foods for kids in a compassionate, caring, and playful way.

Eating and procreating are the only two activities humans do that involves the 8 sensory systems. I literally learned how to hack my nervous system and my brain to accept new foods. To say I was over the 🌙 is an understatement!

Naturally, I applied everything on myself. It’s been 4 years since I took the course and today I’m proud to say that I eat the most variety I’ve ever eaten in my life.

Being a health coach and trained in the SOS approach to feeding also meant that I had the peace of mind to feed my kiddos even though my own health was not “done”.

For those of you interested in that material, I created the course Food School as a blueprint to feed kiddos at from from 6 months to 5 years old. It has all the principles and tools of the trade I used on myself and on my two boys. If you want to check it out, the link is in my bio.

My oldest who inherited my overactive sensory system (and my pickiness), is now 6 years old and eats like a beast!

If you want to see the details on how we approached it, you can check out Food School (click the link in my bio).

So far:
✅ I had the vision of what was going to happen in my life and how I wanted to be in the end
✅ I learn about nutrition
✅ I got the right supplementation for my current needs
✅ I learned to add new foods to my diet

Next came cooking! To give you an idea of where I started, before I had kids, I burned 7 pizzas in a row. I couldn’t cook to save my life. That needed to change especially since I now had a baby to feed … yikes!

10 Year Plan –> YEAR 3, 4, 5, and 6 👇

The next phase of my 10 year plan lasted for an entire 4 years.

That’s because for 5 years straight, I was either pregnant, breastfeeding, or both. Who else ✋ went through something similar?

This was a time to focus on giving my body as much nourishment as I could by adding superfoods and lessening the junk.

Lots of pantry switches happened. No more boxed rice, noodles or mashed potatoes. Those babies got done from scratch now!

Let me tell you, there’s no better “cooking school” than making food for babies. It’s the best because you literally start with one ingredient at a time and work with it. I owe my kiddoes my appreciation for cooking now.

With the best progress happening in the kitchen and widening what I ate, the “baby years” were tough on my sleep. I was raising two toddlers while trying to work and having a side business.

I went for years on 4 to 6 hours of sleep at night. If you can’t control your sleep guess what? You’re going to have uncontrollable cravings during the day.

Sadly the weight gain slowly crept up during those years.

Have you ever experienced gaining about 0.5 pounds each month? In the beginning, it doesn’t feel like much, but after 7 years that’s anywhere from 40 pounds more before pregnancies.

It’s a slow process until one day you don’t recognize yourself in the mirror and wonder how you didn’t catch this sooner.

I always knew I was never going to focus on weight loss until I was done breastfeeding.

Now it was time! There are a few ways to go about losing weight in a way that’s sustainable. In my next post I’ll tell you all about that next step in my journey … the final stretch!

10 Year Plan –> YEAR 7 👇 (this was 2020 ✨)

BTW: This picture is scary AF to post, but here goes nothing. I only took one in September and regret not having anything to compare to from January … note to self … take progress 📷

________________________________

In January of 2020 my switch finally turned on that it’s time to move into taking care of my body. The kids were healthy and thriving and in a weird way, it gave the OKAY that I can take some back time for myself.

The first thing I did was to make time for exercise before the kids get up in the morning. Honestly creating that habit was my ONLY goal for 2020.

Why? Because I’m not a morning person. I dread waking up in the morning with every fiber of my being.

And so I began working out. I strategically choose programs a few online exercise programs – all of which I loved – and shed 25lb throughout the year.

✨ I was halfway down to my weight goal by the end of the year! ✨

It took me a solid 8 months to consistently wake up early and work out. Now I safeguard that precious time in the morning like nobody’s business!

Next, I began to tighten my nutrition. It’s been a while since I studied sports nutrition, so I dusted my mind off and started my next big habit – eating like an athlete.

Why, because my goal is to build muscles underneath my (still generous) layer of fat. First, because once I reach my goal weight, I want to have those feminine muscular curves. Second, because I want to raise my metabolism.

________________________________

Moral of the story, take on ONE habit at a time and make it part of YOU. If you take on too many new things, you’re going to literally tire out your brain. A brain that’s stressed wants to go back to what it knows to be safe. It thinks that what’s safe was the way you USED to do things. So you’ll go back to your previous patterns.

There’s some brain hacking for you 😜
________________________________

Today I’m doing a Calisthenics program to help me build solid lean muscles. I have a feeling I’ll need them to keep up with my two boys 🏂 🤼‍♂️ ⛸️ ⚽ 🚴

10 Year Plan –> YEAR 8, 9 & 10 👇 (this is my current phase ✨)

I’ve always been drawn to spirituality. I remember a time when I went to a Hay House Convention with my best friend and we both left with what felt must be 100 books each. That was a day I’ll never forget! 💛

One of my biggest learnings from Louise Hay is that it doesn’t matter if you start focusing on eating healthy, exercising or your spiritual practice. They are all interconnected. As soon as you focus on one, the others will follow.

Have you experienced this in your life? I have … many times over.

Over the last few months, I’ve been feeling a little restless. I have neglected my inner work for too long. I’ve been craving to nurture my intuition and start feeding my soul again.

My morning routine evolved from just exercising to also include writing in my 5-minute journal and pulling a card with a message to contemplate during the day.

It’s been refreshing, to say the least. Living mindfully, intentionally and with purpose will be a big focus of mine going forward. This is what you’ll hear me talk about most.

________________________________

This will be my most challenging phase yet because of one thing … SUGAR.

While I have my exercise progression loosely planned out for the next bit, quitting sugar will be an experience for me.

When I was younger I smoked for 10 years. It took me 5 years to get my mind right so that when I quit, I’ll never want to go back.

Yet I can’t help but feel that quitting smoking was easy in comparison to quitting sugar. I trained my mind to hate smoking. That’s why it’s not even a thought to pick it up again.

But sugar I still see as yummy, good, flavourful … a reward. I’ll have my work cut out for me to reprogram the way I think and feel about sugar.

Has anyone done this type of mindset shift before? Would love to hear your story!
________________________________

To reach my vision of health, this is what I’ll be focusing on 👇

🤸‍♀️ Continue with my calisthenics exercise progressions and drop to my goal weight.
🍫 Get my sugar addiction under control
🌟 Live mindfully