9 Nutrition Mistakes to Avoid
LISTEN: APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | STITCHER
In this episode of Embrace Your Real, I share 9 of the most common nutrition mistakes I see women make and what we need to do instead. It’s my goal to better educate you on nutrition, empowering you to make the best decisions for yourself, your goals, and your preferences! Whether you’re working to lose weight or to build muscle, these 9 nutrition mistakes are applicable!
Which nutrition mistakes are you making? Take a screenshot of this episode and post it up in your Instagram story and give me a tag to let me know which mistake you were shocked to hear!
If you loved this episode, you’ll also love:
Episode 21: 10 Foods That Aren't as Healthy as You Think
In this episode, I share ten common foods that may be hindering your progress, am I'm guessing many of them will shock you! This is an important episode to pay attention to if you’re striving to reach a fitness goal, as nutrition accounts for 80%, if not more, of your results.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hello, and welcome back to the Embrace Your Real Podcast. Today, we're talking all about nutrition mistakes we make, and need to avoid. If you make any of these mistakes, I'm not trying to make you feel bad by any means. Trust me, the reason I am bringing these up is because I've made these mistakes, and I just want to educate you on how to start nourishing your body the way that it actually needs to be nourished. So I hope that this episode will bring you further education on nutrition, helping you make better decisions for fueling the results that you want. Whether that be losing weight, building a stronger body, or just overall having a healthier relationship with food.
But before I dive in, I would absolutely love for you to press pause for just a moment, and go leave a rating for this podcast. We are officially over 50 episodes deep, and I am putting my heart and soul into this podcast. And I can't express how much it would mean to me, if you took time out of your day to help this podcast grow. Seriously, every single review, whether short or long, really does help the podcast in terms of growth. We have a big goal of reaching a million women all over the world, helping them to embrace their real. So I'll wait here for you. Thank you so much in advance. I really, really appreciate it.
All right, let's dive into the nine nutrition mistakes to avoid. Number one, you over eat on healthy food. Now I know a lot of times we find a snack or a treat that tastes so delicious, and also happens to be quote unquote healthy. But just because it's healthy, it's okay to eat more than we would otherwise. The ingredients are clean, or it's low calorie or high protein or whatever it is. For some reason in our minds that is equated to, I can eat more of it, right? Because it's healthy.
When finding snacks or treats that are delicious and are also nourishing, it's awesome. It still doesn't mean that you can eat as much of it as you want. At the end of the day, overeating is overeating, whether you're overeating on potato chips or healthy veggie chips. And just because you love almond butter or the trail mix that you bought at Sprouts or Whole Foods, and you know that it's healthy, eating too many servings will still hold you back from building the body that you want. And honestly, eating too many servings of even peanut butter. I remember when I really struggled in my eating and body image disorder, because I had no concept of nutrition, and I had no concept of education around food. I was like, oh well, because this is all natural peanut butter, I can eat however much I want. And I couldn't stop, and then I just felt so, so sick to my stomach because I over ate on that. And just remember that nourishing her body with nutrient dense foods is great, but eating in moderation is always important, no matter what food you're actually eating.
Number two, you wait until you're on empty to eat. Oh my goodness, this was me for so many years of my life. I know that many of you think the longer you go without eating, the more weight you're going to lose. But if you aren't absolutely starving, you shouldn't be eating, right? So you wait all day, or as long as you can possibly wait until you eat. The problem here is that when you finally do allow yourself to eat, you overindulge. And in most cases, we would be better off eating in moderation throughout the day, rather than waiting forever to eat, and then eating everything in sight.
Plus, when you're absolutely starving, all of your cravings typically take control of you. I know that was for me, for years and years of my life, I would literally try to go like, okay, if I went to 4:00 PM yesterday, can I go to 4:15 today? And it was just this disgusting monstrous game that I would play with myself. And then I would get to a point where I was so hungry, that I would just binge on grapes, and quote unquote, healthy food, and I would feel so disgusting. I would feel disgusting because I completely lost all control of my sense of anything, when I was just continuously eating and shoving stuff in my mouth. But it was like, I also just physically felt so disgusting, because I had completely over ate food in a short period of time, and I hated that feeling.
Some nutrition experts recommend staying on top of your hunger and never allowing yourself to reach that starving point, because it actually helps you have less cravings and easily eat in moderation. Which in the past, I would play that disgusting game where I'd be like, can I wait until 4:15, or 4:30 or 4:45. Or if I could wait until six, I would reward myself with some sort of food. And it was just creating this ridiculously unhealthy relationship with food.
And then when I started to actually learn about food, educate myself, a.k.a. learning how much nutrition my personal body needed, based on my goals and where I was at. And then I started to slowly eat over the course of the whole day, and eating in moderation, it was like the cravings and my urges to completely over eat or go crazy, it's not like they immediately disappeared overnight. Of course, there's a lot of mindset work that goes into it, and there's a lot of practicing of just staying consistent to it and trusting the process. But it was so amazing at how different, night and day different, the cravings that I had, and my overall eating habits were, when I was staying on top of eating in moderation throughout the day.
Number three, your macros and caloric intake don't reflect your goals. So many of you guys are so concerned about your calories and not your macros. And I understand it, because I used to be that way, because the society as a whole has taught us that calorie counting is the way to go. You want to tone up your body, yet you aren't eating protein, fat, carbs, calories, you're not eating enough of anything. I've gone through the benefits of macro counting before, but in a nutshell, the process of burning fat requires dietary fat, the fat that you actually eat. And your muscles need both carbs and protein to repair and grow. And your body overall needs enough calories, otherwise it will slow your metabolism down.
So if you aren't burning fat effectively, your metabolism is slow, and your muscles don't have what they need. How can you expect your body to tone up, right? A.k.a. lose body fat and actually see your muscles. It's not about eating less, it's about eating right when it comes to building the body that you want. So we can't cut out carbs or fat, we can't skip out on protein, we can't try to eat as little as possible. That's just not how this works. And if you do this, you'll just be walking up an escalator that's going down. You still might make it to the top, but you're making it a lot harder on yourself. There's a much more efficient and much more effective way of getting there, so eat in a way that reflects your goals.
Number four, you focus on subtraction rather than addition. When we're working towards the body that we want, or trying to lose weight and want to dial in on our nutrition, more often than not we want to focus on all the foods that we need to subtract from our daily intake, and not on the things that we need to add. So we have this laundry list of foods that we think we need to eliminate, and we eliminate these foods without replacing them with other things. Now, this oftentimes leaves us feeling completely deprived, and it's not sustainable longterm. But honestly, shouldn't we be working towards building a sustainable, healthy habit? Because constantly depriving yourself is not sustainable. Trust me. Been there, done that, I'm sure you listening have been there, done that in some way, shape or form. And you're shaking your head, you're nodding, you're saying yes, it's not sustainable.
Just because your typical Ben and Jerry's ice cream doesn't fit your macros every day, doesn't mean you can't have ice cream. There's so many other alternatives. For example, I am a huge Yasso fan. You have seen probably on my Instagram, I've been working with Yasso, I love them so much. I've been honestly eating their frozen Greek yogurt long before I ever started working with them as a brand. So when they reached out to me, I was like, "This is a no brainer, I eat your product every single day," and so it was like a match made in heaven. And so for me, it's finding things like, wow, I didn't even honestly know that it was frozen Greek yogurt, because it tasted just like ice cream.
And I'm not saying that you can't have Ben and Jerry's, you can absolutely have Ben and Jerry's and still reach your goals, it's totally doable. Just remember when you have something like Ben and Jerry's, that is naturally higher in calories, you're just obviously most likely going to be eating less of it, if you're wanting to stay within your macros. So just because Domino's Pizza doesn't fit your macros every day, doesn't mean you can't have pizza. I love pizza, and I love ice cream, and I'm never going to deprive myself of that. And so, instead of eliminating these foods altogether, you can eat them on occasion. You can find other delicious versions to add to your daily intake. There's so many different ways that you can make alternatives, that allow you the opportunity to still have a delicious pizza, or still feel like you're eating ice cream, and still reaching your goals.
So whenever you eliminate something from your diet, just because you feel like it's not nourishing you, how can you make sure you can add something back? So instead of looking at this laundry list of things that you think you need to eliminate, I want you to open your eyes, get more creative. There's so many recipes out there that are healthier alternatives, that are nourishing your body, that are allowing you to have a larger portion of a meal that's going to make you feel actually full, instead of going for the Domino's Pizza every single time. You know I love my Domino's Pizza, but I also know that my version of a healthier alternative of a Domino's Pizza, with whole nutrient dense foods, is going to actually leave me feeling more energized, if I were to have that more often than Domino's, every single night. I could honestly fit Domino's into my macros every day, but I know that it's not going to nourish my body. I know that eventually I'm going to get burned out.
And so that's why it's really important to get creative with alternatives, get creative with foods that you want to eat. Open yourself up. I know when I first started counting macros, I told myself for so long, I'm not good at cooking, I'm not good at baking. And because I kept telling myself that, it was like I was completely shutting myself off from even exploring the opportunity to make delicious recipes, to put together things, to open myself up to actually making a dinner from scratch. Previously, I told myself, I'm not good at that, I'm just not going to do it. And so it's also like a mindset thing, so just remember that you have the opportunity to become a really good cook, you have the opportunity to become a really good recipe developer, if you want to.
And so open yourself up to that, and you'll be amazed at so many recipes and so many delicious dishes, that are healthier alternatives that give you a larger portion of food, leave you feeling more energized, and allows you the opportunity to have other delicious foods in your macros because you're not spending it on one meal. You're not spending your entire macros on one meal.
Number five, you never give yourself permission to eat what you want. Although there may be some things that you feel you need to eliminate from your daily food intake. You should never, ever, ever, allow foods to be off limits. Maybe there are some foods that you don't necessarily need to be a staple in your daily intake, but that doesn't mean you never allow yourself to eat them. The more rules you put on foods, the more food will actually rule you. The more permission you give yourself when it comes to food, the more control you'll have when it comes to food. Your cravings won't be insane, you won't feel the need to overindulge, and you will be able to eat the food that you want in moderation, because you can have more later, tomorrow, or whenever you want.
Perfect example of this, is that I was actually just in Breckenridge, if you guys saw my Instagram, and Josh and I went up there for mini getaway. And we have our favorite go-to cookie shop there, it's called Mountaintop Cookie Shop. It's so delicious, if you're ever in Breckenridge, go to this place, I'm not joking. These cookies are so amazing. So every time we go up there, I know I'm going to get a Mountaintop Cookie Shop cookie, because it's just a thing. But for me, is that a daily staple in my intake? Absolutely not. If I were to eat those every single day, there's just no way that I would be able to number one, feel good, because there's so much sugar in there. And number two, actually reach my goals.
But the beautiful thing about never, ever, ever depriving yourself of specific foods, is that I know when I go up there, I'm going to enjoy the heck out of that cookie dough sandwich cookie, and then I'm going to know, all right, tomorrow I'm going to feel good. And then the next time I go up to Breck in a few months, I'm going to enjoy the heck out of that cookie, and then I'll feel good. So it's like the beautiful thing about not putting restrictions on food, is that you allow yourself the opportunity to truly live in that moment and enjoy it.
Because I know for me, for years, I would try to lie to myself and say like, oh, I'm going to enjoy this. And to the outside world, to everybody that I was with, whether it was friends or family, they looked like I was enjoying it. But on the inside, I had so much guilt, and I had so much self doubt, and I had so much negative self talk that I was saying to myself. Because I was telling myself, I can't believe you caved in. I can't believe that you let yourself do this. And then I wouldn't even enjoy the actual food in front of me, because I had so much dialogue going on in my head. So please, please, please remember, that the more permission you give yourself when it comes to food, the more control you'll actually have when it comes to food.
Number six, you think eating salads is the only way to eat healthy. This was me for years of my life. You guys, I know so many women that think in order to eat healthy, they need to eat three salads a day. Salads for lunch, salads for a snack, salad for dinner, on repeat, as long as they can possibly stand it. I am telling you, there are so many nourishing foods in this world, and you don't need to just eat salads to lose weight or get more toned. Seriously, eating only salad is so boring, and I would never, ever, ever tell you to do that, because you just don't need to.
Plus, only eating salads means you're not eating enough carbs. And if you're using fat free or low fat dressing, which I know most of you probably are, if you are in this weight loss mentality, you're not getting enough fat. Also, while salads are extremely nourishing and they are filled with important micronutrients, you're still failing to nourish your body with actually what it needs. So the thing is for me, when I used to do this, I used to eat so many salads and I'd be like, okay, I'm going to create a salad. I'm going to create a salad. And then I would ask myself at the end of me eating it, I'd be like why am I still hungry? I just had this huge salad. Of course, but yes, it's a very nutrient dense food, which means you need a lot, a lot in your salad in order for you to feel full and satisfied.
And so when I switched from the salad mentality, to how can I create a bomb sandwich that's going to make me feel full and nourished? It was incredible what happened after I finished eating a sandwich, versus a salad. I'm not dissing salads. I still love a good salad. You guys know if you watch my Instagram stories, I love a good salad with grilled chicken and avocado and tomatoes and mozzarella cheese and balsamic dressing. Those are awesome salads, and I still definitely have them, but I feel so satisfied after a sandwich. And so just learning those different cues, learning and being in tune with yourself. After you eat something, asking yourself, "Am I still hungry? Or was this meal not big enough to satisfy me?"
Because I know for me, I would rather eat a larger meal so that I feel satisfied for longer, instead of trying to make these very small, low calorie meals, and then literally 45 minutes later, I'm hungry again. So learning those cues is really, really important. And there's so many ways that you can include vegetables without having a salad. You can cook cauliflower rice, you can make zucchini pasta, you can grill your brussel sprouts, you can grill your veggies, you can cook spaghetti squash. There are so many ways. You can cut up veggies and have them with hummus or guacamole. There's so many other ways to get your micronutrients in without having five salads or three salads a day. So just get creative. Again, it comes down to the mindset and really opening yourself up to saying, "I am capable of getting creative in the kitchen. I am capable of putting together delicious things. And I'm not just going to limit myself to only eating salads, or only doing this, because I've told myself for years that I'm not good at cooking in the kitchen."
Lastly, one other thing that I've been having, which is so, so good, is I have been doing this Chick-fil-A copycat, Chick-fil-A grilled chicken, and it's so delicious. We cook up a batch of it and then we use it in salads, I've been using like these rice bowls, so I've been cooking up rice bowls and I have it with cilantro, lime, sauteed spinach, tomatoes, and it's so nourishing. It fills me up. Because of the rice, obviously that is a very nutrient dense food, but it also is a high caloric food as well. So one cup of rice is, or at least the rice that I have, is like around 40 to 50 grams of carbs. So it's a higher carb source, but it makes me feel fuller longer, and I feel just satisfied and energized. So, get creative with your vegetables. You don't need to have salads two, three, four, five times a day.
Number seven, you prioritize shakes and bars over real food. Okay, do you think having more protein or a meal replacement shake and bars is the answer to your weight loss goals? I have seen so many diets out there that are like, "You can eat this," and they show like one dinner, you probably know, I'm not going to say the name because I don't want to get sued, but you probably know what I'm talking about, but like, "You can have this dinner, and you can have this lunch." And then you look at the rest of the day, and it's like a bar, and a shake and another bar, and that's your day. And I'm like, that is not an actual way to be living your life, every single day having just bars and shakes over real food.
These are great supplements, of course, your daily intake if you need to reach your goal of protein, or you need to reach your goal of having carbs or whatever. But they should not make up the bulk of your daily intake. While they may be macro friendly, you're still missing out on the essential micronutrients that you need. Plus I know for me, if I were to just fill every single meal with a bar or shake, they're not satisfying, because they're less nutrient dense foods, and they have a higher caloric intake. Longterm, they're not going to help you lose weight fast, because you are most likely going to get burnt out on eating the same protein bar and the same shake every single day, and in place have a delicious meal.
And so of course, it's one thing if you're eating them because they're convenient. It's another thing if you're only eating them because you think that is the answer to losing weight. So if you eat these things regularly, just make sure you're doing it with the right intention, you're never doing it just because you think that is the only way to lose weight. There are so many delicious meals and things that you can make, where you don't have to have two protein bars and three protein shakes, or two protein shakes per day, just to reach your goals. Make sure you have the right intention with these.
Number eight, you make eating more complicated than it needs to be. This was me for years of my life, you guys. I know that you probably have obsess over the exact time that you should eat, because I remember I did that. You think you need to eat before a workout, you think you need to eat after a workout. You think you need to fast for a workout. There's so many conflicting information out there. You think that you can't have carbs after seven, there's so many things out there. And for years I obsessed over the best food to eat right before I work out, or the best food to eat at night time.
And the fact of the matter is, it doesn't need to be that complicated. The more complicated you make nutrition, the less sustainable nourishing your body will be. Honestly, when you eat something, really is not going to make or break your goals and your results. I know that that might be like an aha moment for some of you, because I know for me, when I first hired my coach years ago and he was telling me, "You don't need to worry about restricting your carbs after seven," I was like, "Wait, what?" And he was like, "You can eat up until you go to sleep if that's what you want to do, it's all your preference."
And it was this mind boggling thought that really opened everything up for me. Because for years and years of my life, I was like, I can't eat after 6:00 PM. I can't eat carbs after six or 7:00 PM after dark, because then they're going to go into fat storing mode. And it was just this BS, if I'm going to be honest, it was complete BS. So I don't want you to stress about the best time to eat carbs, or getting enough protein after your workout. Just focus on eating enough carbs and enough protein daily, because you don't need to make it more complicated. Ultimately like I always talk about, it is consistency over perfection. And like I've said before, even with supplements, they make a less than 5% difference. It's the same thing with nutrient timing.
Of course, nutrient timing we'll make a small sliver of a difference. But if it's not something that is enjoyable for you to figure out, okay, I need to have X amount of carbs post-workout and X amount of carbs pre-workout, and all of these things, it can just be stressful. And for me, I've done it. Trust me, I've done it for both of my shows that I competed in. And honestly, I was like, this is not the way that I want to live. And so, like I've always talked about before, macro counting is a tool, and it is what you make it. So you put in what you want, and you create the lifestyle that you believe you can maintain longterm. So for some that might be mastering the art of nutrient timing, and they enjoy it and they love it, and it's something they can stick with. But the majority of people it's just not sustainable. They have a family they're busy, they don't want to deal with it. And so just focus on eating enough for what your body needs within a 24 hour period, and girl, you're going to be fine.
Number nine, you believe everything you hear about food. This was me. Literally, I would read something in a magazine, I'd be like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that. And I would believe it. Or someone would tell me something, that this is the best diet, and I'd believe them. I was so easily weighed in so many different directions, which ultimately led me feeling so lost, and feeling so dependent on people and on information, and so many things, that I felt like I couldn't create my lifestyle that I wanted because I was so easily swayed by opinions.
You believe egg yolks are bad, you also believe red meat is bad. You believe white rice and white potatoes will make you fat. Now you believe red meat is good, you believe egg yolks are now also good. You believe eating vegan is the healthiest. And now you believe eating keto is actually the healthiest and the way to reach your goals. Oh, and now you feel like you heard this new study that egg whites are bad again, and same with red meat. You know what I'm talking about. It was seriously back and forth all the time. This new study would come out, this magazine would come out with this article, and the girl on the front of it was so lean and tone and sculpt. And she's like, "Here's how I achieved X by eating keto," or, "Here's how I achieved X by being vegan."
You can't obsess over the latest news, or what's good or bad. You also can't automatically believe it. It's always changing and will continue to change, because they're only using these things and these headlines to get more clicks, more reads, more shares. That is all, most of the time. Only a tiny little, extremely controlled study was done, that's specifically set up to be a bias towards a certain outcome. An article will refer to this biased study, and then because of that, they will create it as a fact and tell you that egg yolks are bad. But then another tiny little extremely controlled study will be done, and they'll set up a bias towards another certain thing. And another article will come out, and refer to this biased study, and then they'll say, "Oh no, egg yolks are now good." The cycle will just continue, so before believing anything, please look into the reputability of the source, where it's coming, and seeing if that is a reputable source to begin with.
I know most of us, with the exception of my husband, an Enneagram number five, and any Enneagram number fives listening, you're probably not even going to look to the source of something. So instead, eat what makes you feel good, and remember that our bodies are machines. We are here to properly fuel them to keep them running optimally longterm. So please just remember practice moderation in everything.
Let me recap. Number one, you over eat unhealthy food. Number two, you wait until you're on empty to eat. Number three, your macros and caloric intake don't reflect your goals. Number four, you focus on subtraction rather than addition. Number five, You never give yourself permission to eat what you actually want. Number six, you think eating salads is the only way to eat healthy. Number seven, you prioritize shakes and bars over real food. Number eight, you make eating more complicated than it needs to be. And number nine, you believe everything that you hear about food.
If you love this episode, you will also love episode 26, Three Weight Loss Myths Busted. These three myths are my biggest pet peeves when it comes to women on their weight loss journey. And that's why in this episode, I give you the truth behind these myths, and give you the best explanation as to why these are things you should not believe. And also episode 21, 10 Foods That Aren't As Healthy As You Think. In this episode, I share 10 common foods that may be hindering your progress, and I'm guessing many of them will shock you. This is an important episode to pay attention to if you're striving to reach a fitness goal, as nutrition accounts for at least 80% of that, if not more. And just opening yourself up to learning more about foods, there are so many little golden nuggets in there that I know will be helpful for you.
Just remember, all of these episodes that I'm doing, I share them because these are things that I wish I would have learned seven years ago, because they would have literally eliminated years and years of my life of questioning, of going back and forth, being swayed by the opinions of media, and magazines, and all of these things. And so my whole goal on this podcast is to provide you with education, empowerment, and just straight up answers that will help you kickstart your goal in just a more level headed, educated way of reaching your goal.
So, thank you so much for tuning in. I hope that this episode was eye opening for you. I hope that you learned something from it. Again, these are things that I know I personally have struggled with every single one at some point on my journey. So I hope that you are able to identify and relate with some of these. And if you have somebody in your life that could benefit from this episode or this podcast in general, I just ask that you share it out with them. I love this community, and I love hearing, "My sister referred me, my coworker referred me." It is just such a beautiful blessing to be able to share this message of embracing your real, and learning more about ourselves, and empowering ourselves, and empowering the larger community of women around the world.
So thank you, thank you, thank you. I love you so much. Be sure to screenshot this episode, post it up on your story. Tag me, Julie Ledbetter. I love seeing what came from this episode, your aha moments. And I will talk to you guys in the next one.