And you continue to practice eating whole foods, those actually can become what you love.

You envision yourself as someone who eats in a way that supports their health.

30 full days of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks to take all of the guesswork out of what to eat. Welcome to the Strength Changes Everything podcast, where we introduce you to the information, latest research, and tools that will enable you to live a strong, healthy life. On this podcast, we will also answer your questions about strength, health, and well -being. I’m Amy Hudson. I own and operate three exercise coach studios. My co -hosts are Brian Sagan, co -founder and CEO of The Exercise Coach, and Dr. James Fisher, leading researcher in evidence -based strength training.

And now for today’s episode. Welcome back to the Strength Changes Everything podcast. So Gerri Ann Sagan is with us today. Welcome back to the episode, Gerri Ann.

Hi, Amy. Thanks for having me again. Looking forward to it. Thank you for being back here with us. So if you have been listening so far to us in our series about the food supervillains and then what should be on my plate From these episodes, you’ve been educated on really what it means to eat whole food. Whole food eating really can do us so many favors in terms of our health, and those health troublemakers help to address the health troublemakers that we’ve talked about, again, being high systemic inflammation, high blood sugar levels, and poor digestive health.

There’s been a lot of a great case made for why it’s so important to fill our plate with the right choice foods that are going to support us and help us function in the way we were designed to function best and why it’s important to eliminate or remove or minimize some of the food supervillains that may not be doing us any favors. So now we’re going to talk today now about what we can do, some tips to incorporating this whole foods lifestyle into your life. If you’ve learned this information and are ready to take action on it. First of all, let’s start by what might a day in the life look like eating just whole foods? Sure. Yeah, that’s that’s a great that’s a great one.

And we get that question a lot as well. So for breakfast, I’m just going to take you through the day. So for breakfast, it might look like a coach fuel smoothie that we talked about with nut milk, coach fuel protein, whether it be whey or paleo or plant, and possibly some fruit or veggies or greens added, depending on your taste. Or you may have some eggs that they made however you like with a side of, say, avocado and greens. If you’re not on the 30 -day challenge, you might have an unsweet, full -fat Greek yogurt with some berries and nuts in it. And maybe you have some unsweetened tea or coffee.

So that might be an average breakfast. For lunch, it might be leftover dinner from last night, which is often what I have. And that will always include a protein, a fat, and a vegetable. Or perhaps you’d have an omelet. with whatever meat you have in the house, vegetables, greens, or you might have a big salad with whatever vegetables you have in the house and add chicken and add avocado with a homemade vinaigrette dressing, you know, just balsamic or red wine with some lemon juice and salt and pepper. For a snack, you might have one to two hard -boiled eggs.

Maybe you didn’t have the omelet for breakfast, so you’re going to have the hard -boiled eggs for a snack.

Or maybe you’re going to grab one of our Coach Bars that we sell at the Exercise Coach from Design Services.

Health. We have five different flavors or even a handful of nuts or a great choice would be have some guacamole with some vegetables to dip in it for some nice crunch and some good fat. For dinner, it should always look like a great protein source. Chicken, beef, fish, I would suggest always two vegetables, perhaps a side salad, and you can go with one vegetable if you’re having a big side salad, because that has vegetables in it. Or maybe it’s a homemade vegetable -based soup. I make cream of broccoli or cream of cauliflower a lot.

And instead of cream, I use full fat can of coconut milk as my cream source. And it’s amazing. Actually, it’s better than I ever imagined. And some good fat like avocado or olive oil or coconut oil to cook with or drizzle on your food. And then maybe even some fruit with that dinner. And then if you still need a later snack, perhaps it’s just a few unsweetened plantain chips or some raw veggies or an apple with almond butter.

Don’t eat the apple alone at night. Or a handful of other nuts like pistachios. That would be a bunch of suggestions right there that you can mix up in a whole bunch of different ways in the average day of whole food eating. That’s so great. And actually outlined in the nutrition playbook, there is 30 days of sample daily menus that we offer anybody who’s trying to eat this way, especially for that focus period of time of 30 days. It’s really great because you’ll get right here within the playbook and via our resources.

30 full days of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks to take all of the guesswork out of what to eat if you’re trying to eat this way. So it’s a fabulous resource that’s available.

And some people use that and follow that to a T. And some people modify it and mix and match with some of the recipes that are in our free recipe booklet available at exercisecoach .

com. We have so many resources to help you choose and figure out what you can eat and make. You know, trying to eat this way, as well as our Pinterest page. So Darianne, you know, this is really helpful. I’d love to hear from you.

What are your best tips for success for somebody who wants to make this move to a whole food lifestyle overall and just reduce their food super villains?

Tell us your best tips. Yeah. So, you know, it’s really going to come down to a little bit of, I guess, philosophy. I’m not a believer in willpower. Most people say, I just don’t have the willpower.

Well, guess what?

You’re right. You don’t. I am a believer in mindset and they are different, although most people don’t realize the subtle but huge differences. So willpower is the ability to force yourself to do something in the moment. It relies on your own self -control, your discipline and resisting temptation. Characteristics of willpower.

are that it’s very short -term, it’s mentally exhausting, it has limited resources, so it gets depleted, and it feels like you’re just pushing uphill. An example of willpower, you want that cookie, right? Someone’s offering you a cookie and you say, no, because you’re trying to eat better. You’re having the strength in the short term to say, nope, I’m not going to do it because you’re trying to eat better. Well, mindset is your own beliefs, the identity you have, and a mental framework about yourself and about the world.

So mindset shapes what feels natural or worth doing. So characteristics of mindset would be it’s long term, not short term, like willpower. It’s self -reinforcing. So it encourages you. It’s sustainable. You can keep doing it.

And it feels more like an alignment than a force. You’re not pushing uphill. So the example would be, you’re still going to say no to that cookie that you were offered, but you pass on it because of your mindset. You see yourself, you envision yourself as someone who eats in a way that supports their health. So, of course, I don’t want that cookie because I’m not someone who would be eating that cookie right now. It’s not a day that I you know, would give myself a treat like my birthday where I’d have my birthday cake.

You know, it’s just not something that I do. That’s your mindset. So the key differences are, again, with willpower, I have to, I have to say no to that cookie. Mindset is I choose to. Willpower requires a ton of effort. Mindset still requires effort, but it ultimately feels more automatic to you.

And this doesn’t take place immediately over time. Willpower definitely depletes over time. I guarantee you’re going to eat that cookie at some point. You’re just going to eat it. Mindset strengthens over time where it just, you know, like for me, going to get a cookie in the afternoon wouldn’t even be something I would think about doing. And you’re focused on resisting when it comes to willpower.

I must resist. But with mindset, you’re focused on your identity and your beliefs. So a real -life example would be a willpower would be forcing yourself to exercise every day or forcing yourself to eat whole foods. I’m doing this. And again, we have a challenge. People do this by willpower.

I’m going to force myself. But the mindset people, those are the people that become a person who doesn’t skip their exercise because they wouldn’t be a person to do that. A person who chooses to eat whole foods every day. Well, I’m a person who does this now. I don’t eat the way I used to eat anymore. So you see how it’s and they have success.

They have long term success. They keep the weight off. They keep themselves more energetic. They just have a whole better outlook on life. So you see how it’s the same action, but it’s a very different experience. So my best tip, my best strategy is using willpower is temporary.

And you do need it to create some new habits. That’s what helps you kick off your mindset, the willpower.

But you’ve got to focus then on shifting to a mindset, seeing things in a different way so that those habits eventually feel natural to you. I love that. You know, part of the benefit of basically like dipping your toe in the water for the first time, taking a 30 day metabolic comeback challenge and practicing eating this way is basically that. It’s practice for the new type of person that you’re becoming. As you get used to and start to enjoy eating whole foods, that actually does become eventually what you desire. And your desires for some of those supervillains can go away, provided you don’t just go right back after a 30 -day focus period of time to eating that way all of the time.

As we know, a lot of these are addictive. And you continue to practice eating whole foods, those actually can become what you love and what you enjoy, and they become their own reward in and of themselves. And to me, that’s really a victory. It’s not a bad thing.

I have to restrict myself from or withhold myself from that I truly desire.

If my desires can change and be in alignment with who I perceive myself to be as a healthy person, somebody who exercises and somebody who eats well, that’s the win.

Yes. And sometimes it takes multiple 30 day periods of time to get that under your belt and really assume that identity. But that doesn’t mean you give up after the first effort, right? It is reps, it’s practice, it’s time to establish something that becomes habit later on by default. Yes, mindset takes time. It really can be something that takes time.

And I read reviews from some of our clients, from the exercise coach, And they literally, many of them say, I was never an exerciser.

I hated exercise. And their mindset changed to, I am someone who, I still hate exercise. I hate it. But I’m someone with the mindset is I’m someone who does. I’m someone who does exercise because I’m someone who is going to have muscle. I’m someone who’s not going to need my children to help me get around when I’m in my 80s and 90s.

I’m going to get around on my own. So I see myself differently. And that’s how my mindset shifts. It has nothing to do with the fact that it doesn’t make you necessarily love something or hate something. I mean, I don’t.

I don’t hate an Oreo cookie, but I just don’t usually, it’s just not on my choice of eating maybe once a year because it’s just not a part of my mindset. Yes. Well, thank you so, so much. There was so much good information in this episode. If some of this was new to you as a listener today, I really encourage you to pick up a copy of the Nutrition Playbook if you don’t already have one. You can order it on Amazon, or you can

can get it at your local exercise coach studio. And it’s there for you as a guide and a resource, as well as visiting exercisecoach . com for all of the resources to help you implement this. If you are a current client and are participating in a 30 -day metabolic comeback challenge right now or in the future, we are cheering you on. You can do this. This is something that thousands and thousands of people have participated in, and it really truly becomes such a foundational lifestyle habit for your best health.

And so, yeah, keep going, keep making the best choices for your health, and we will see you next week on the podcast. Until then, we hope you remember, strength changes everything. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please share it with a friend. You can submit a question or connect with the show at strengthchangeseverything . com.

Join us next week for another episode and be sure to follow the show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts so that you never miss another episode. Here’s to you and your best health.