Speaker 1: 0:00

Do you see, hear and read all of the weight loss things and just get overwhelmed with where to start? Are you just the point where you have no idea what to focus on anymore? To move the needle. If you really want to know what to focus on when you just start out, listen in. These are the things that I have learned the hard way.

Speaker 1: 0:19

Thank you for tuning in to the Hot Mess Mom Health Podcast, where starting messy is always better than perfect. My name is Rebecca Santos and I'm a busy mom, just like you, trying to level up my health and reduce stress in this crazy life Since becoming obsessed with all things health and wellness. My mission here is to share information so that you can finally lose the weight you want and feel energized, because us moms all deserve to feel good. So grab that iced coffee and listen in to the foundational things I wish I knew sooner when I was starting my health and weight loss journey. Hey there, welcome to the Hot Mess Mom Health Podcast. Do you wish you could find a sustainable way to get healthy and not feel overwhelmed in the process? Do you find yourself up late at night scouring Pinterest for meal prep ideas and quick workouts? Do you wake up with big, ambitious goals, only to feel stressed out and disappointed when you fall back in your old habits. Drive through the Chick-fil-A drive-through for the second time this week, all while the fresh produce you just bought goes bad.

Speaker 1: 1:17

Hey, I'm Rebecca. I too am a working mom of two littles and self-proclaimed Hot Mess Mom. All my life I've struggled with trying to maintain a healthy weight and feel good in my skin. I could add yoyo diet or to my resume. After I packed on 50 plus pounds with two pregnancies, I decided to change for good. I wanted to stop obsessing about food, stay consistent and set a good, healthy example for my kids. But I kept telling myself that I didn't have the time, the energy or accountability to stay on track until I changed my mindset and created one healthy habit at a time.

Speaker 1: 1:50

In this podcast, you will find simple, actionable steps that you can create a healthy lifestyle and get relief from the overwhelm. Spray that dry shampoo. Grab your iced coffee, turn up the volume and let's get healthy. Hey there, happy Monday. Welcome back to another episode of Hot Mess Mom. Help. I hope you guys are having an amazing kickoff to your week.

Speaker 1: 2:12

It is Presidents Day, so if you're like me, you're trying to juggle school and kids being home, which is always amazing and stressful, to say the least. But anyway, let's talk about some foundational things that I unfortunately had to learn the hard way. I think if you're listening in and you have tried and started so many times, these are things that you probably know about. But it's always good to refocus, it's always good to say, hey, what are the things that I can worry about now, that are going to move the needle later and I can dig deeper later. What are these? Lay the base, the foundational things that we really should be working on immediately, and these are the top five things that I believe will be those bottom layer, bare minimum things that we have to work on to move the needle to where you want to go. And these are in no particular order.

Speaker 1: 3:10

But number one is support. Support looks different for everybody, and I mean that in a sense, that support might mean your husband is doing this journey with you. Support might mean you have a health coach. Support might mean you go to your local gym and you have a group of women that are doing the same goal that you do. Support might mean you have a walking group in your community and you're all working on this together. That could mean like a Facebook group. You know a look a Facebook group doesn't have to be local, but just a group of you know 30 plus year old moms that are looking to get healthier this year. It can look like so many different things, so I don't want you to get caught in the weeds with trying to fit into some box of what support looks like for others.

Speaker 1: 3:59

Support has to look like what it looks like for you, what is going to help you stay focused and on track, and it doesn't matter what everybody else is doing. It doesn't matter what it looks like for everyone else. You know some people like I'm a big Peloton user. That really helped catapult me into feeling supported, joining Peloton groups, knowing that, like I could high five people in the leaderboard, that's something that helped me feel supported. That might not do it for you. You might need to physically go to a workout class. You might physically need to go to a gym where they're spinning. You might need to go to a boxing gym or a swim class.

Speaker 1: 4:38

It doesn't matter right, as long as you find your people. You find someone that is going to support you and hold your hand on this journey and be there when you have good days and bad days that is something that I wish I knew from the beginning is probably, if not the most, one of the most critical parts in you being successful. I'd love to say that everybody has a spouse that's supportive, but that's also not the case. Finding your person, your people, your group that lifts you up when you don't feel like doing any of this work, who can you turn to? Who can you talk to? Who can you vent to? Who can you share your successes with, be that support for them, too. In return, support Big, big, big, big, foundational thing when you are starting a weight loss and health dirty. Number two and this is so critical as well, they're all critical. Number two mindset shifts. This is something if you've been listening to this podcast for a while. Even if you haven't, I have the words choose joy tattooed on my wrist.

Speaker 1: 5:50

This is probably the number one thing that I personally struggle with to this day. Maybe a little bit of a running joke with some of my friends I'm negative, nancy, I tend to side on the negative side of life and I hate that about myself. It's something that I am working on every single day and I wish I put this more of a priority in the beginning because maybe I'd be a little further along on my positive Patty journey than negative Nancy. Basically, it's just shifting your mindset to these I can do's and I get to do. If not, I can't, I won't.

Speaker 1: 6:29

It's hard really looking at things in a positive approach and, again, that doesn't look the same for everyone but catching those thoughts that pop up continuously. Something that I've found to be helpful with shifting some of this stuff is when I find myself thinking something negative about my body, about my health, about how hard things seem. Write that down and then you can catch the patterns and finding maybe what is triggering you in those moments. Like maybe you start beating your body up when you see bikini models on Instagram or something and it makes you feel bad about yourself. So, catching that trigger, maybe you need to like silence some people on social media, whatever's going to turn off that negativity and create mindset shifts in a positive way. That is like very foundational. Those negative thoughts, those negative things we say out loud, the things we say internally. If we wouldn't say those to our closest friends, why do we say those things to ourself? Right, like we have to have a really good relationship with ourselves. We have to have that can do attitude.

Speaker 1: 7:35

Not being negative about stuff Mindset shifts, start to finish all day long is something that I've had a with and I wish I put that more of a priority in the beginning of, you know, just my adult life, even not even in regards to how the wellness journey. But from the beginning I wish I Acknowledged how negative I was treating myself, how negative I was just creating this space around me, because you know what? There's a lot of things that other people don't get to do that I get to do. You get to go to the gym. You get to work out. You get to move your body. You get to make positive decisions in your day. You get to do things and really thinking about that and leading with positivity. It does help.

Speaker 1: 8:17

I know I feel better when I do that. I know I feel better when I do not constantly carry on my negative thoughts Hard. I know, trust me, this is like mine. I'm raising both of my hands and my feet in the air. Here I am like if there's any reason why I don't ever get to my health goal at the end of the day, it's because of my mindset. So I am with you and Anything that you can do that works for you any tips, tricks, whether it's journaling, meditation that helps you get out of the negative is so helpful. I have seen it firsthand in my life and when I get stuck in those spirals of negativity, nothing good comes from it, nothing at all. So that was number two. Mindset shifts All right. Number three this is like a big deal, right. So being open to movement and I am not, you know, gonna sit here and tell you and dictate to you what movement is right for you I think movement has to come from a place of excitement, of enjoyability, things that you would look forward to doing. However, I Will say, if you are listening to this and you are between 35 and 50, which I'm gonna assume most of my audience is, then weight training, strength training, putting on muscle Should be a priority as far as movement goes, but other things that you can do.

Speaker 1: 9:39

Movement is Just thinking about making conscious efforts to move a little bit more than you did the day before or that you did last year, whether that's parking your car far in a parking lot, whether that's taking stairs and set up elevators or escalators, whether that's just taking a walk with your family after dinner, whether that's, you know, something I do with a girlfriend is my daughter's at like a gymnastics or dance class. I walk the parking lot with her. We catch up, we walk, and it's great you get more steps in for the day. You're moving your body more. Having a stand-up desk, maybe having a treadmill under your desk, maybe it's simply when you're watching TV at night doing arm curls with five pound weights, you know, doing push-ups during commercials, trying to work up to a minute plank. Maybe you start at 10 seconds, just moving your body more, making it not seem like a chore, but also incorporating strength training.

Speaker 1: 10:32

I, the more I research, the more I read, the more I listen to things. Instead of getting overwhelmed, I have this like hit over your head Sense of like. Oh my goodness, I wish I started lifting heavier weights a lot sooner than I did. That is one thing that I wish, once I got confident in my abilities to move more, that I started picking up heavy things, because I know, looking back, that's something that I could have done and that I should have done much sooner. Like now, I'm all about it. I see the importance, the value the research is there.

Speaker 1: 11:11

Especially I'm over 40, strength training and moving my body is so important. I know there's a lot of you know you hear the calories and calories out. Move more, eat less. I don't really necessarily subscribe to all of that. However, there is something about keeping your body in motion to stay healthy and not killing yourselves with hours of cardio, which is what I did for so long, and I wish I built foundations of actual strength training way sooner and just getting in the mindset of moving more throughout the day, as opposed to being in a high-intensity cardio class for an hour. Not that those are bad, right Like. If you really enjoy them and it's something you want to sprinkle in here and there, I think they're amazing. However, doing that and only doing that is not a really good foundational way to be, because you're just constantly burning calories, you're constantly putting your body in a state of inflammation and increasing cortisol, the stress release. It's just not the best thing for you. So if you can build that foundation of starting to move your body more and considering whatever kind of weight training would feel right for you, whether it's, like I said, starting out small where it's picking up a couple dumbbells during commercials or after dinner going for a walk, going to do some push-ups with your husband, your kids do sit-offs, do something fun, whatever it looks like for you. I think everybody has to start somewhere and that's the beauty in this. But learning and being open to moving more and strength training foundational stuff.

Speaker 1: 12:51

Okay, number four sleep. And I just want to like say sleep and then do a mic drop. However, I can't do that. So. But sleep is critical, right? Critical as far as your body's recovery, releasing all that terrible stress that we have, giving our body's a chance to actually relax because if you're like me, you're go, go, go, go go. That sleep is your restorative time, getting good quality sleep, focusing on that, and if you have some type of device that allows you to see and dig into your sleep a little more, like an o-ring or an apple eye watch, really looking at that and saying what can I do to improve my sleep? When do I feel the most energized when I wake up? What are the things I did the day before, the day before that? Really valuing your sleep. Not staying up all night scrolling on Facebook and Instagram, not binging Netflix until three in the morning. You know, obviously you might have a night or two like that, but not doing it every single night, really prioritizing good quality sleep and not thinking sleep is just for like when you're dead, because that's not a good mentality and I wish that I had looked at sleep as like a longevity tool a long time ago. Now I'm like, oh my gosh, if I don't have eight, nine hours of sleep, I'm like a train wreck. So I value my sleep. I want to get good quality sleep. I do everything that I can and try to look and tweak what I'm doing to try to get a little bit more quality, deep sleep. So, yeah, sleep is critical. It is so critical.

Speaker 1: 14:25

I would highly recommend the book Sleep Smarter. It is such a good book. So many tidbits in there about getting good quality sleep, the importance of it and why you need it. Because I think nobody tells you this stuff right when you're young. Nobody tells you the value of sleep and how important it is and it is such a foundational thing. If you don't get good quality sleep, everything else that we're talking about almost doesn't even matter, right? Because you're not going to be able to do any strength training. You're going to feel like crap. Your brain's going to be all kinds of shifting negative because you don't have restful sleep and you might just not even want support and you might be cranky to be around, right. So we want to make sure that you are getting good quality sleep every single night of the week not negotiable, okay.

Speaker 1: 15:11

And number five so I am a big advocate of whole food and if you think about it and you think about the different diets and the different programs that are out there, typically, speaking from a foundational standpoint, they all want you to eat more whole foods, like whether it's keto or low carb or paleo or carnivore, they're going, they all kind of go back to this let's eat more whole foods, let's get rid of the packaged foods. So one of the foundational things that you know when I was younger and in my, I think, first episode of this podcast, I said I used to eat boxes of snack well cookies, because they were low fat or no fat, whatever they were, and they were delicious little marshmallow-y chocolatey cookies. I mean, if you've had them, you know, you know it's like a devil's food and they're delicious. However, they're pre-packaged garbage basically. And now I know that I wish I knew more about that stuff when I was younger. I wish I knew more about that when I was starting out that you know, eating whole foods is always going to fuel your body, give you more nutrients.

Speaker 1: 16:24

It's going to, you know, keep you full longer If you really think about it. You know even a smoothie, for instance. You think of all the different fruits and things that are in like a 32-ounce smoothie from Smoothie King. You could never eat those in whole form. You could never eat like two bananas and two apples and two tanges of greens and protein. You could never eat that in its whole form. But we can eat it processed. You know things like that. Maybe eating six apples would never happen, but eating, you know, 20 ounces of applesauce is easy to do. Right, like simple things like that.

Speaker 1: 16:59

Going back to things whole foods related and trying to get rid of everything that's in a package as much as you can. Even if it's a slow process, it's always going to be a better foundational thing to eliminate things out of a package Going to eat more chicken, more protein and more fruits and vegetables from its whole form and not things that are pre-made, pre-packaged. Again, I get it. We don't live in a perfect world, but I think the first step, and from a foundational level, is just acknowledging hey, these packaged foods have a lot of other things in them and I don't know how it's affecting me, so I'm going to try to clean that up right. Maybe it's just doing it one meal at a time, one item at a time, finding a sub and a whole food. That's better for you and, from a foundational standpoint, it is always going to be better. There's almost no negative to eating more whole foods, so I hope these five things help you.

Speaker 1: 17:52

These are definitely things that I wish I knew when I was like a teenager. You know, when I started crazy dieting when I was a teenager. I wish I knew the importance of these things and you know, as a 41-year-old woman today, these are things that I often need to remind myself of, even though I know them. It's always good to hear it and just know that this is the right path. Like there's no quick fixes, there's no easy way around it. It's just it's hard.

Speaker 1: 18:19

This stuff is hard and it takes time, but knowing that you have these things covered and that these are like your things that are going to keep going and you're going to build upon these, they will help. These are the foundational things that we all can work on, laying the groundwork for where we want to go. Whether it's weight loss, whether it's building muscle, whether it's getting lean, losing weight, whatever it looks like for you, these five things are going to help you lay that mat to build the house of your dreams, if you will. So I hope you guys have an amazing week and I will chat with you guys soon. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to this episode of Hot Mess Mom Health. If you love this episode, please leave me an iTunes review. It would mean the world to me and it would help me get the word out about helping other moms reclaim their health. Thank you so much.