How to Look and Feel Your Best After the New Year Hype is Gone

How to Look and Feel Your Best After the New Year Hype is Gone

Welcome to this episode of The Determined Mom Show. I’m your host, Amanda Tento, and I have the amazing Sarah Thomas here. She is a 44-year-old personal trainer, fitness instructor, nutrition coach, business mentor, wife, and mom of three, and she’s also the founder and CEO of Burn Fat and Feast. 

Thank you so much for having me. I’m happy to be here. I’m really excited to talk about this topic. It’s so timely, and we’re gonna talk today about how to look and feel your best after the new year hype is gone. We all have experienced that. Like January 1st is perpetually a new year’s resolution is Fitness, health, and nutrition. 

This is huge because every year, January 1st is a reset. Everybody wants to reset everything in their life. Health and wellness obviously are a huge component of most people’s new goals. And there’s just this new energy that we feel come January 1st.

What makes me the saddest about this is that the statistics say over 90% of people, especially in our country, will throw in the towel after January, after about four weeks of attempting all these new great things in their life.

 There are a few reasons why people do this. Three top ones that I wanna talk about really quickly today. The first one is that we just simply overcommit. As I said, we wanna do things differently in our life. We’re gonna be organized and our relationships will be better, and we’ll make time for our kids and we’ll, have these health and wellness goals and do all the things better and greater.

We set too many goals. I’m not a huge fan of resolutions in general. And we’ll talk through that a little bit today, but this is the big one. One of the reasons why I’m not a huge fan is because if over 90% of us are thrown in the towel after the end of January why do we do it?

But that’s one of the reasons is that we are, we’re over committing, We’re doing too many things. We’re setting all the things in front of us and it’s not realistic that the. 

The second reason why we are just giving up after January is that we have that all-or-nothing attitude. We start and we are maybe depriving ourselves of foods that we love. We’re under-eating. Maybe you’re attempting to work out six days a week when you weren’t consistent in the beginning. 

Then we see ourselves as failing when we aren’t doing all the things that we set in front of us. And it’s not, it shouldn’t feel like a. Winning and failing. There’s a middle ground. We can, part of setting goals and part of working towards them is the journey.

And the journey is sometimes two steps forward, one step back. Sometimes it’s one step forward, two steps back. But that’s part of it. And we should never feel like, it has to be an all-or-nothing thing. But the third reason that we are throwing in the towel healer here is that we have this mental picture in front.

Of how it’s supposed to go of your new life come January 1st. All the newness in front of you and how it’s gonna feel and how it’s gonna look, and you’re excited. But it doesn’t always happen that way.

And sometimes when you go on that trip, it can feel disappointing or the plain thing leading up to it feels more exciting than the actual trip because we set ourselves up for that by picturing this mental place that, sometimes it’s just unrealistic. 

When we step into February. The honeymoon phase has, is over officially. Maybe I can’t do all those things. Or maybe it’s just not real, I’m not meant to do all of those things and do all of them at one time, and today we’re talking a little bit about how we can reset those intentions.

How can we go from that state of doing all the things and now feeling overwhelmed and feeling sometimes like we failed come February how we can not be one of those 90 plus percent statistics of feeling like we’re throwing in the towel how we do this as, especially as women in our forties and beyond when we’re trying to really focus on our internal health with our hormones and our metabolism health as part of that.

You no longer really look at health and wellness out from the outside of the six-pack apps or, fitting into your size two genes or those are those things. They come, the physical part comes, but. What we should be more focused on. And really what I see women around me now are focused more on that and they understand that internal wellness is the inside wellness. 

Five ways that we can reset our attention.

I love that you said that you started before the new year. That is a fantastic strategy and really you can reset your intentions anytime throughout the year. But I love that strategy because, When you get in some habits before the New Years start, you’re already five, 10 steps ahead of Where you could come January?

The first one is that you need to make something, a habit in your day. And there are many things that we can do, and many goals that we can set, but we have to pull some of the layers apart and focus on one thing. We’re talking about the number one priority, the number one habit. What’s that one thing that you need to focus on right now that will push everything else forward?

What is the one thing that will be the hardest for you to tackle? And that’s all you needed to focus on. For example, if you’re like, Okay, I’m working out, I’m going to the gym regularly, at least I’m going like three or four days a week.

I really need to make some changes in nutrition, then that’s your one thing. That’s the one thing you’re going to change. Everything else stays. And I call this the domino effect because if you truly choose the one thing that is gonna push you forward, that’s the domino, That’s the very first domino that pushes all the others forward.

Maybe that means you’re waking up at 5:00 AM how do you start that, right? If that is the goal, how do you start that? That may start with going to bed earlier. Simply you can get up early in the morning. Whatever that first domino is that pulls everything else in front is what you want to do.

And I will disclaimer here with a little side note if you’re saying that, my goal, my big priority is a meal plan, You don’t make it a priority to plan your meals or go grocery shopping. Then maybe that isn’t your priority right now in your season of life.

You always make time for the very first thing.  It’s as the day goes on or later, it’s maybe I’m not gonna cook dinner, maybe I’m not gonna work out. We always make time for the very first thing in our day. Keep that in.

And these are things that you need to go back to, to decide, is that still my number one priority? Because oftentimes maybe it’s not, maybe, saving money for a special trip is your number one priority, and that’s what you’re gonna work on for this season of your life. That’s a really good thing to mention too, I’m glad you brought that up.

 The second thing here that you want to really focus on when you are resetting these intentions, and this is a food-based one, is prioritizing protein. And this is important for women, especially late thirties and beyond because there are a few things.

Number one, protein helps to repair and build muscle. We lose muscle mass starting in our twenties. That’s a big deal because muscle has a lot to do with arm metabolism. And how fast or how fast we feel it is. Muscle and specifically protein help to burn fat. Muscle and protein help to burn our fat. It also helps to regulate our hormones.

Prioritize protein and if are looking at it, you’re tracking your macronutrients. Really women wanna get around 30 grams of protein at every meal. And most women are undereating protein, and it’s simple. Just add a little bit more to it.

When I make soup, I just add more protein to it. When I eat anything at home that, let’s say it’s, chicken breasts, I just have one and a half. Just adding a little bit to what you’re already eating is the easiest way to do it.

Not overcomplicating it. You just don’t overcomplicate it. And oftentimes you’ll find that if you are snacked throughout the day, there’s a reason that you’re snacking. And typically that’s because you’re undereating. 90% of women are undereating and if you are undereating, you want to snack, you feel that urge to snack throughout the day.

The third thing you want to think about to reset these intentions is strength training. And I touched on that with building muscle on the last one, but strength training is huge. All movement is good movement. I will forever say all movement is good movement.

But if you are focusing on internal wellness. In turn, focusing on the outside physical wellness and really just focus on. Increasing how you’re experiencing your daily life. Strength training and adding muscle will never be a bad thing. As I said, we start losing muscle mass in our twenties.

We continually lose muscle mass once we hit our forties in our fifties and later we start losing it at a higher rate, a higher percentage every single year.

And this is a big deal because Helps to increase our metabolism. Number one, that’s a big one. Number two, it helps to regulate our hormones as we get older. Number three, it decreases our risk for inter-injury. If we have more muscle mass, we are not susceptible to two injuries.

And now as we get older, and we’ve probably seen this, you’ve probably seen this in someone that you love that’s elderly who gets injured easier. It’s a lack of muscle mass that’s protecting our joints.

And if you want to live a long, full life, strength training is non-negotiable. And it is one of those things where, If you do nothing else, like fine strength training in your day and in your week.

Tip number four is one of my favorites because I think, at an earlier age in life, a lot of us just use this and put our blinders on. I know I need to do this, but I’m not, and that’s resting. Resting well, and they’re so many. Ways that we can look at rest.

And I’m gonna talk about all of them because they’re all important. Digestive rest is the term for giving yourself and your internal health a chance to stop digesting.

That’s very important for gut health. It’s doing two things, either digesting or it’s resting. And when we are constantly eating, when we wake up and we start eating and we are eating and all the way until we go to bed, the only time we’re giving ourselves digestive rest is during those nighttime hours when we’re sleeping.

And then we start that cycle again. We really do need to give our bodies a longer chance to de digestive or have digestive rest. And I’m sure some people have heard of intermittent fasting and how to do that correctly, and maybe you’re doing it now or whatever. Implementing some of that in your life.

That is a great thing that you can do for yourself. Giving yourself rest in terms of just sleeping. Allow yourself to sleep. It is the most discounted thing ever. And a lot of us, as I said in our earlier years, use that as a badge of honor. 

If we are trying to juggle just being a mom and doing all the things. Often that’s still a badge of honor. It really isn’t fine. It is really one of those things where we need to stop and make this more of an intention in our day.

Getting at least a minimum of seven hours. We, our bodies really need up to eight, eight to nine hours of sleep. And I’m not getting nine hours of sleep, but I do try to get eight hours in and sometimes that means just saying no to some things.

Sometimes that means saying no to dishes in the sink. And that’s okay because your sleep is way more important than leaving dirty dishes and your sleep sink overnight that nobody’s even gonna know about.

 It is really important and it is actually been researched many times. We’re talking about metabolism and hormones and losing weight as we get older, that if you are sleep deprived if you are not allowing your body to rest, you are gonna hold onto everything.

Your cortisol, your stress hormone’s gonna be high. You’re gonna hold onto all your excess fat because your body’s in that fight or flight mode. Like it’s what are we doing? You’re not allowing us to calm down. You’re not allowing your nervous system to chill. It holds on, It’s in that fight or flight mode.

You’re mind mentally, you’re not focused. You’re foggy. There’s a lot of research now talking about how our body and our minds, like everything, and our body, and our mind, our brain, and our physical body. The effects of the lack of sleep with alcohol.

They’re comparing the two. And what they’re saying is that as you are sleep deprived, even three days in a row of not getting seven hours of sleep, your body starts to function like it’s intoxicated with the brain fog, with the physical limitations that you have when you’re intoxicated.

The fifth thing that you can do to reset your intention is to grant yourself grace. And I’m speaking to all the women out there who feel like they should do everything perfectly all the time because it just doesn’t happen.

Life wasn’t meant for us to walk through it perfectly and have all the answers, have it all figured out, and do everything that needs to be done on the to-do list every day in the life. That’s what it’s about, right? It will always throw you a curve ball. 

I leave margin for the curve balls, whether it’s a thing that happens that diverts my attention or it’s a sick kid that I have to go get from school. Or if it’s an unexpected something with my dog, whatever, whatever it is, I truly leave space in my day now for the what ifs. . And I have found that has helped me navigate better when they come my way, and then some days, they.

We incorporate our favorite foods, it’s not all-or-nothing. And so if you are focusing on trying to grant yourself grace and you’re struggling with it, I would just. Find support, find a community that’s gonna help you through that to be in your corner. Because it is, it’s a process.

I will go back to what I mentioned earlier of whatever is your priority and your number one, do it in the morning. Because you always have time for things in the morning, whatever is most important. And what I do on a daily to do is I set my top three, I call them my big three.

I don’t know at this point, whatever I need to do and whatever you feel like is. Gonna serve you well that day or that point in your life is, and just a side note, it’s not perfect. It’s never gonna be perfect. Even when you leave your margin for those things there, there could be something that comes up where you’re like, you have to erase everything for the entire day or for the entire week, but this will help you feel less stress.

I know I need to pick that one thing to pull that, that will be that domino that pulls everything else forward and helps me. But how do I do it? This is a strategy. If you just need help getting started with something, right? Doing one thing, even if it ends up not being that first domino If you’re doing one thing that will get you in the habit.

And that’s why we need to get in the habit of doing one thing consistently before we add something else to it. And that’s why I say push everything else aside and just focus on one. How you get started with this and this. On so many levels is to habit stack. And if you’ve never done habit stacking before, if you’ve never heard of habit stacking, it’s really simple.

You take a current habit that you’re currently doing something that you and you wanna continue doing and you stack it with something that you want to do. You can also do this with things that you don’t want to, but let’s just focus on the things that you want to implement in your life.

Using something that you do all the time and you’re adding to it. Here’s an example of something that I wanted to do. I wanted to really start doing some affirmations I wasn’t making it a priority in my day, and I wasn’t doing them on a regular basis, so I posted them truly on a post-it note in my bathroom on the wall, and I would say them out loud and say them to myself while I was brushing mine.

 As a habit could be you walk into your house and put your stuff down in your mudroom. Then you put your phone down and you charge your phone and it stays there. Or, a habit is you cook dinner at night, you sit down to eat dinner every night, and that is your cue when you sit down to eat dinner, to put your phone away for the evening, and it’s charging.

 Many ways that you can just take something that you’re doing consistently and add to it. I have had clients that have said that they’ve used they’re really good about doing devotions in the morning or gratitude journals in the morning, but they also wanted to do their workout in the morning.

And so I’m like, You’re in a habit of doing your devotion already. Take your journal. whatever you’re using, take your notebook and put it in your workout space. If it’s a gym, your garage, or whatever. And so you have to be dressed. In order to go and do your gratitude and you’re in your space around your workout equipment. You do that and then you work out. It’s just stacking those habits on the top. 

We offer free five-day training, you can sign up for that on our website, Burn Fat, and fees.com. It’s right there on the main page and if you have trouble, you can certainly reach out to me. On our team. We are Instagram and Facebook and all the places burn fat and feast. Thank you so much, Sarah for being here, sharing your wisdom, and also sharing your program with us.