Episode 9: On the Road and All Those Summertime Parties
We need different routines and foods for summertime. The days are longer and might be busier. We might be on the road or going to summer parties. The same old same old does not work for summer, but it doesn't have to be a free-for-all either! Learn to use the tools you have in your arsenal so you aren't starting all over again in September.
1:14. Listener of the Week
1:56. Personal Story
4:03. Summertime doesn't have to be three months of all you can eat!
4:45. Protocol Meal Planning
5:53. Use your Hunger Scale
6:19. Use the Good-Better-Best method
7:33. Kaisen
8:42. It's the food!
9:27. What mistakes are we making?
10:18. Why are we making these mistakes?
12:02. What is the cost of making these mistakes?
12:28. Calling out a new way of doing things
15:45. This week's ACTIONABLE COACHING advice
18:00. Special Offers
Good-Better-Best Method
Hunger Scale
Breakfast & Lunch planning worksheets
22:37 Episode 10, coming up
Breaking Free From Diet Prison Book
Breaking Free From Diet Prison Course
Instagram@Roadmap To Diet Success
Breaking Free Facebook Page
Access Transcript Here
Get all my free guides
Take a look at three great new courses
Join me on Facebook
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Check out Pinterest
And don't forget my book!
Episode 9: On the Road and All Those Summertime Parties
We need different routines and foods for summertime. The days are longer and might be busier. We might be on the road or going to summer parties. The same old same old does not work for summer, but it doesn't have to be a free-for-all either! Learn to use the tools you have in your arsenal so you aren't starting all over again in September.
1:14. Listener of the Week
1:56. Personal Story
4:03. Summertime doesn't have to be three months of all you can eat!
4:45. Protocol Meal Planning
5:53. Use your Hunger Scale
6:19. Use the Good-Better-Best method
7:33. Kaisen
8:42. It's the food!
9:27. What mistakes are we making?
10:18. Why are we making these mistakes?
12:02. What is the cost of making these mistakes?
12:28. Calling out a new way of doing things
15:45. This week's ACTIONABLE COACHING advice
18:00. Special Offers
Good-Better-Best Method
Hunger Scale
Breakfast & Lunch planning worksheets
22:37 Episode 10, coming up
Breaking Free From Diet Prison Book
Breaking Free From Diet Prison Course
Instagram@Roadmap To Diet Success
Breaking Free Facebook Page
Access Transcript Here
Get all my free guides
Take a look at three great new courses
Join me on Facebook
Follow me on Instagram
Check out Pinterest
And don't forget my book!
Episode #: 9
On the Road… and All Those Summertime Parties
You’re Listening to the Roadmap to Diet Success Podcast, Episode #9, On the Road, and all those summertime parties.
"Did you know that you don't have to spend money on a diet program or weigh, measure and track your food? What if you could learn to have success by following an easy roadmap that takes you on adventures from learning how to change your mindset so that you can believe in yourself, to learning about what foods work best in your body and why? Join me, Miriam Hatoum, health coach, course creator and author of Breaking Free From Diet Prison, as I give you actionable coaching advice that is sure to empower you so that you will finally find peace with food and learn to trust your body’s signals. You’ve got this, girl!
Oh, and before we start, I want to let you know that the primary purpose of this podcast is to educate and does not constitute medical advice or services, and I’m keeping up with the science as fast as I can so I can share with you the latest breaking research in this area to help you achieve your dreams!
1:14 Listener of the Week
I want to start this episode by calling out my first listener of the week. Kirkland 55 left a 5-star review with the following comment entitled: Very Helpful and this is what she said:
There is a lot of easy to understand, very helpful points you bring up in each of your podcasts. Gems of wisdom.
I’m glad you speak at a pace that is easy to follow, and mentally digest. These podcasts will definitely help me to continue on my road to getting healthier!
Thank you so much Kirkland 55 for being my first listener of the week with my first 5-star review!
1:56 Personal Story
I don’t know about you, but whenever I followed a certain diet plan or eating-style plan, summertime seemed to take on a free-for-all feeling. After all, now that we are adults, don’t we get summer vacation too?
A lot of it had to do with dieting to fit into summer clothes or a bathing suit. Some of it was just that it was easier to control things during the rest of the year (except maybe for that period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s). Summer means BBQs and backyard summer get-togethers almost every weekend from Mother’s Day in early May until Labor Day in September.
There is ice cream, potato salad, hot dogs and hamburgers with chips, fudge, and salt-water taffy. OMG where am I going here? Anyway, my summer challenges are just as … well… challenging as yours, believe me. Maybe more so because I am, in a way, a public figure because I am a coach and author of two books. I have actually had people come up to me as I am lifting a piece of blueberry pie and ice cream into my mouth and say, “I don’t suppose you have THAT in your book, do you?” Honestly – I have had people come up to me when I am eating and say things like that. Talk about motivation for secret eating… which, by the way, we will get to in another episode.
I could break into a lecture about how I teach people not to fear food and how to, instead, learn to honor their hunger and fullness cues, and indeed, I have left room for the blueberry pie and ice cream, thank you very much. In my strict Keto years then that would not have been an issue because I would not have had the blueberry pie and ice cream – not even secretly. But, not so much the case now, now that I am doing more of a low-carb eating style.
But wherever you are in your journey just remember that:
4:03 “Summertime doesn’t have to be three months of all you can eat – I’ll start again in September” thinking.
At this point, if you have been following Roadmap to Diet Success and have been doing the action items that I have been giving you, the way I do with my coaching clients, you now have an arsenal of ways to keep your eating in check, even if you haven’t decided yet on a particular food plan – and you may never have a specific food plan! That’s not necessary as long as you use the tools I have given you up to now. Here is a reminder of the tools. I will go into more examples and reminders later in the episode.
4:45 First of all, learn to do Protocol Meal Planning. This can be just a loose outline of what you might eat in a day. Let’s say you are going to a BBQ that spans lunch and dinner.
o For breakfast you might go lightly but not so lightly that you are famished by lunch. What foods hold you the best? Have a little of that even though it might normally be a lunch or dinner selection such as a small bowl of tuna fish salad. My favorite is hamburgers, actually.
o For lunch just jot down a few things that you would like. As a hint, when I am going to a party, and I am bringing food to contribute to the party, I make it something that I will enjoy having. Maybe a gorgeous green salad with nuts, olives and avocado, and I make or bring a nice dressing. I might add to that at least one protein selection – there are always hamburgers and sometimes chicken.
5:53 For dinner move on to your next tool, The Hunger Scale, and say that you will eat -2 to +2. This means that you won’t eat until you have some sense of being hungry and you will stop way before you are full. This leaves the playing field open to whatever you might want – fruit, a dessert, another protein and salad selection, etc.
6:19 Use the Good-Better-Best method whether you use Protocol Meal Planning or not. This works especially well if you are on the road and know you will be stopping at a restaurant to eat.
o Let’s say it is fast food. Good would be a small burger or cheese burger or a grilled chicken sandwich. Order a small fries if you must. But whatever you do, decide in advance and maybe even put it on your protocol that you won’t finish the kids’ meals.
o Better might be to order a salad and cut up a burger without the bun (or a grilled chicken) to put on top of the salad. Don’t have the fries!
o Best might be if you anticipated this and brought your own lunch in a cooler. If you go into a real restaurant, of course, this is not possible, but you can certainly find what would be the best items that would not sit heavy in your stomach, and make you pleased that you had made good decisions.
o REMEMBER: Don’t let GOOD derail you from moving forward. Just because you had that burger and fries doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t make the next better decisions with the next meal.
7:33 In a future episode I will be talking about the concept of Kaisen – which is just having small wins and moving along at very tiny incremental tiny changes.
o One of the steps might be that you might need to take toward your goal is to drink more water and fewer soft drinks or coffee drinks. That’s easy enough. Just make sure you have water with you and sip it throughout the day, and when you go to the restaurant don’t automatically order a soft drink. Order iced water instead.
o Another step might be to get in more movement. Another easy one, even with a car trip. Every time you stop for something, whether a meal or gas, make sure you get out of the car, stretch and walk around whatever building it is, if feasible. You may not want to stop too often if you have kids in the car, but if it is just adults traveling, set a timer to stop every 60-90 minutes and again, get out of the car, stretch, and walk around the car a few times if it is safe to do so.
8:42 Even though I haven’t talked yet about specific eating plans, remember Episode 3: It’s the Food!
o Try to make choices that cut out as many simple carbohydrates as possible.
o Simple carbs would be anything processed like potato chips; anything that is sugary as well as excessive fruits and juices; and anything that is a baked good.
o At least during a normal day with regular activities, you have a slight chance of getting these sugars out of your system because of your activities, but if you are in a car a lot of the day or facing a lot of meals out, at least give yourself a running start at eating healthy during the trip.
9:27 What mistakes we making?
o We are making the mistake of thinking that a vacation, road trip or parties at other people’s homes are an all-or-nothing eating situation.
o We think there is no way around fast food, party food, or restaurants.
o We think because we are not on a specific diet plan, then why bother.
o We think that weight gain, or at least a hiatus in weight loss, is inevitable. Neither needs to be true. However, some of my clients do put summer weight loss on hiatus or do allow for a small weight gain. This is perfectly fine as long as you are okay with it, and decide in advance that there will be no judgment or beating yourself up at the end of the summer.
10:18 Why are we making these mistakes?
o We make these mistakes because we can’t break that all-or-nothing thinking. If you come out of your house and find you have a flat tire, do you puncture the other four? NO! You just fix the one. That blueberry pie and ice cream example I talked about at the beginning of the episodet? I enjoy that ONE dessert. I didn’t plow through everything else on the table and go home and binge all night because I had the one dessert or because someone said something to me!
o Another reason for mistakes is that we don’t have patience. We don’t realize that some goals take time, and some take more work than we had anticipated. We give up too soon. We overeat at Mother’s Day brunch in May and think we’ll never get it, so we eat like crazy at the July 4th BBQ… and everything in between and beyond. It takes time to learn your hunger cues. It takes time to build up your “No thank you” muscle. It takes trial and error to find what foods keep you satisfied so that your hunger isn’t constantly triggered. Things take time, my friend.
o A mistake we make is to not consult our mind’s-eye roadmap when on the road. Do you need to pack food? What travels well? Will places you are stopping have good options for you? Are you staying in one place for a while, and can you stock a fridge with your own things? Just think ahead to these thigs and your trip might be a lot easier.
12:02 What is the cost of making these mistakes?
o First of all, we never break the cycle of starting over. We need to learn that we can eat intelligently whether the calendar says July or January.
o And then, the usual, beating ourselves up because once again we have failed, and what is wrong with us, and why can’t we get it together?
12:28 I want to call out a new way of doing things
o Hopefully you have also done the practice of paying attention to how you feel with certain foods. For example, I find that protein and fat hold me for a long time and diminish any cravings and urges I have during the day. If I have something like a bagel I am famished within an hour or two. I know this is different for everyone, so I am just using myself as an example.
o Give some forethought to what might be served at parties or what on-the-road eating options you might have. And, if you are asked to bring something to a party bring something you can and do enjoy.
o Unless there are foods that you cannot eat because of health reasons (for instance, you are lactose intolerant so why would you eat the ice cream?), give yourself permission to eat what you enjoy as long as you stop at enough (that doesn’t mean full!). Eat slowly, have one plate of whatever you want and then reassess after 20 minutes. If you are hungry, have more or wait for dessert.
o Try not to make the mistake of thinking that if we are not on a specific diet plan, why bother? Go back to what I said about faulty all-or-nothing thinking. Our whole diet lives we have been on a diet or off a diet and do not know any other way. Summertime everything is off – whether or not you travel or go to parties. These three months of the year – even if you don’t step a foot out your door – can be entirely different from the rest of the year. If you have kids, your kids might be home from school; if you have grandkids, your grandkids might be visiting a lot more often; the days are longer (which greatly enlarges the after-dinner window). You need different routines and different foods for this summertime period. The same-old same-old will just not work in the summer.
o Give yourself some leeway and instead of sticking to a specific plan (or in addition to sticking with a specific plan). Ask: Am I hungry? Have I had enough? Do I even like what I am eating?
o I am not inviting you to gain weight by eating food that is unhealthy or even good food that is not in the right quantity for your body. I am asking you to truly respect your hunger and satiety cues, and not to eat foods that are not the best for you, and I don’t mean in the diet definition of what is best for you. For instance, my body hums with avocado and smoked salmon for breakfast; it absolutely feels ill with pancakes or muffins. I know that protein and good fat is good for me, while processed carbohydrates and sugars are not. This has nothing to do with what a diet book has told me what I can and cannot eat.
15:45 Here is this week’s actionable coaching advice
o I am going to be a diet-culture renegade here, but I need to say, it might be a time to put weight loss goals on hold.
o If you follow all my coaching advice, you will at least not gain any weight over the summer or during your travels. And if you do, you know what? SO WHAT? You are not a good or bad person based on what the scale says. You are not a good or bad person based on whether you eat what you call good or bad foods. Just enjoy your summer but make the best choices you can.
1. Make your very next best decision. And no, that does not mean a starvation diet. It just means don’t eat unless you are hungry and stop when you have had enough. On the hunger scale I gave you, that falls at about -3 to +3.
2. And then make your next best decisions about food and drink. Drink more water instead of soda (even sugar-free) and coffee.
3. Move a little more. It is absolutely true that no amount of exercise can outrun bad eating, but getting up and moving more keeps you out of the kitchen but keeps you feeling better about yourself.
o Try to do everything that I suggested above and in earlier episodes:
1. Pay attention to how well certain foods hold you.
2. Think ahead to what some of your options might be.
3. Stick with foods that you know feel good in your body.
4. Eat when you are hungry enough – you don’t have to be famished, but don’t eat a full BBQ lunch if you finished breakfast just an hour or two earlier.
5. Take one plate and wait before having more.
6. No matter how much you have taken, stop when you have had enough – don’t go all the way to full because it will feel worse in about 20 minutes.
18:00 Special Offer
With this episode I want to re-share three guides I have already given you. These three guides hold the key to being able to travel and vacation without worry about weight gain or not feeling well. I am giving them to you again here in case you have not already picked up these guides in previous episodes. The direct links to them are also in the show notes and transcript for this episode.
The first one is the Good-Better-Best method. As long as you bring some awareness to what you are eating you will probably right off the bat pick things that will make you feel good about yourself – both physically and mentally. Have the onion rings, but maybe a small portion – and have the ice cream, but maybe a kid-size cup instead of a three-scoop cone. Just be aware that these choices belong to you and you alone. Just knowing you are in control of those decisions can go a long way in finding that you are making better choices overall. This is available at miriamhatoum.com/gbb and the direct link is in the show notes and transcript.
The second helpful guide is Working with your Hunger Scale. Combining the Good-Better-Best method with tuning in to your hunger and satiety cues, will set you up for success all around. You will feel well, not stuffed or sluggish, and you will feel good about yourself and the decisions you are making, which sets you up for even better decisions on the road. No need to worry that you will do “damage” at a family BBQs or fancy dinner on vacation, if you know that you will eat till satisfied and not stuffed. Enjoy it all. Most of us live in abundance, and it is not going to be the last time we have access to hot dogs and ice cream, or even lobster and tiramisu. Pay attention and remember that the last remnants of food on your plate never taste as good as the first few bites anyway. This is available at miriamhatoum.com/hunger-scale. And always, the direct link is in the show notes and transcript.
The third guide is your Breakfast and Lunch meal planning worksheets. Take a look at these in advance of a trip or vacation so that you can come up with some meal ideas while you are on the road. Yes, it will be different from planning meals at home, but you can look at some options. If it is a short day trip, pack a cooler for yourself. If it is a longer trip, you will find that a lot of those choices on the worksheets are available at hotel continental breakfasts, fast-food lunch places, and certainly at regular restaurants. This is available at miriamhatoum.com/meal-planning, with the direct link in the show notes and transcript.
Before I go, I want to ask you: How would it feel to hear your name featured on my podcast and shared with my community? When you leave a 5-star review, you’ll get the chance to be featured on air as our next listener of the week! Just scroll down in your Apple app, or wherever you listen to this podcast, tap the 5 stars and leave a sentence or two letting me know how this show has impacted your life or how you expect it to. Your review helps others find the show, and I would be so grateful to receive these reviews, especially because I am just starting out. Positive reviews by my listeners are so important.
By the way!! If you’ve ever got a question you’d like to ask me or share a topic idea that you would like to have me cover on a future episode, don’t be a stranger! I hang out on Instagram @Roadmap to Diet Success, or you can contact me through my Facebook page, Breaking Free From Diet Prison, which I would love you to Like and Join. I always look forward to hearing from you. You can also email me directly… miriam@miriamhatoum.com.
22:37 Next Week’s Episode
Coming up in the next episode I will be explaining what Keto is and what it is not. This is the first in a series of episodes that will explain and pull apart various eating lifestyles. Among others, I am going to explore low-carb, intuitive eating, paleo & primal and Mediterranean eating lifestyles. In order to have a successful journey with a useful roadmap, it’s important to understand some options and have enough information to make useful decisions that will fit what is best for you.
Until then, go live free from diet worry — I’ll see you back here next time.