Fuel For Thought
Join hosts Tracy Elizabeth and Nicole Heller on Fuel For Thought, the empowering podcast designed to help women unleash a healthier lifestyle. With their expert insights and unwavering dedication, Tracy and Nicole delve into the challenges faced by women in achieving optimal health and provide actionable strategies to overcome them. From debunking myths about nutrition to exploring the latest fitness trends, they leave no stone unturned in their quest to fuel your body, mind, and soul.
Each episode of Fuel For Thought offers a wealth of practical advice, inspiring stories, and interviews with leading experts in the health and wellness field. Tracy and Nicole bring their unique perspectives and personal journeys, making every discussion relatable and authentic. Whether you're struggling with emotional eating, searching for sustainable weight loss techniques, or seeking to boost your overall well-being, this podcast serves as your go-to resource for transformation.
Through lively conversations, evidence-based research, and practical tips, Fuel For Thought will equip you with the knowledge and tools needed to make informed decisions about your health. Uncover the secrets to maintaining a balanced diet, discover effective workout routines, and learn how to build a positive relationship with food. Fuel For Thought embraces the mantra of relentlessly overcoming obstacles to achieve your desired results.
Tune in to Fuel For Thought and join Tracy Elizabeth and Nicole Heller as they inspire, motivate, and empower women to take charge of their health, harness their inner strength, and unlock their true potential. Subscribe now to embark on a journey towards a healthier, happier you!
Fuel For Thought
Reshaping Resolutions: Embracing Growth, Gratitude, and Authentic Aspirations for the New Year
Ever found yourself scribbling down the same old New Year's resolutions, only to feel a sense of déjà vu? This episode takes a candid look at why our typical weight loss goals might be selling us short, and how we can shift our focus to more soulful ambitions—think nurturing relationships, community involvement, and a dollop of self-belief. Tracy Elizabeth and Nicole Heller, your guides on this journey, unveil personal narratives of holiday loneliness and the transformative power of using that space to kindle growth. We're not just talking about change; we're talking about the kind that resonates deep within and ripples out to touch others.
The art of resolution-making is more than a whimsical wish list; it's about creating a roadmap for our future selves. In this heart-to-heart, Nicole bares a chapter of her life, revealing her method to dissolve the New Year's Eve blues through purposeful goal setting and the simple yet profound act of penning a letter to her future self. The duo discusses shaping resolutions that are not just about shrinking waistlines but expanding our personal development horizons, setting robust boundaries, and cultivating a garden of gratitude and self-love. It's about thanking ourselves for the journey we're on and the destinations we're heading towards.
As we wrap up a season of transformation and prepare for the next chapter, we celebrate the milestones of our shared adventure. We recount the top marvels of the year and offer strategies that breathe life into your resolutions—like reveling in non-scale victories and curating albums that reflect our truest joys. Tracy and Nicole extend a heartfelt salute to you, our cherished listeners, for walking this path with us, and raise a toast to the pursuit of resolutions that echo our authentic selves. Here's to a new year of empowering tales, joyous achievements, and actions that speak louder than any resolution list ever could.
Follow our journey on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/fuel_for_thought_podcast/
Welcome back to Fuse the Thoid. I'm Tracy Elizabeth, I'm Nicole Heller and we are back. Back, nicole is calm, we just wrapped up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm a little calmer than before, not for long, but I'm a little calmer. We have another passionate topic. Yes, there's such passionate topics, so we just wrapped up Separation season, separation season.
Speaker 1:Make the decision, make the decision, and we are rolling into resolution Resolutions.
Speaker 2:Make the decision. So I think, before we start talking about New Year's, I think that I want to start with just a piece of heart, that I feel about it and I am super passionate about it. But Nicole today is super passionate about it. Nicole previous was not passionate about it and I hate New Year's. You like the whole idea of the night, like the whole holiday itself, or like the whole general concept of resolution.
Speaker 1:Everything.
Speaker 2:Oh Well, I like that. What I don't like about the actual night is it used to be just a night where we ate so many pigs in a blanket.
Speaker 1:Why did?
Speaker 2:we just eat pigs in a blanket. But now I feel differently about it. But what I really want to think about is this whole podcast for us is about women empowering other women to be healthy, right Women empowering other women to stand tall and feel good about themselves, regardless of your size. But it's not about that. It's about you deciding that you want to sit in the driver's seat, no matter what area of life work, parenting, whatever it is. And when I think about how many women including myself and speaking for myself that New Year's would come and every year I would set the resolution you got new sneakers.
Speaker 1:You got new gym clothes.
Speaker 2:You got a new cup. Yes, I got a new water cup, but I resolved to lose weight right. Every year I resolve the same thing, you and everyone else yes, men and women 100%. So when I think about that now, the first thing I think about is how silly that was. Yes, silly, yes. But when I think about that now, I think about the progression. So years ago I remember being like I'm going to get healthy.
Speaker 2:I'm going to lose like 75 pounds and I'm going to go to the gym and it was like this big, lofty, almost like I was dreaming bigger. And then the next year it would have been like you know what that gym thing is really not for me, but I'm really going to hone in on nutrition and the dream got a little smaller. And then the following year it was like you know what, maybe 75 pounds. I won't even look that good, so maybe I'm going to shoot for 20 this year because I wanted to be attainable. And it went a little smaller. And then the following year I was like you know what I'm really just going to commit to January, you know. So when I think about that now, what hurts my heart is that, instead of setting a New Year's resolution to be better and resolve for more, I diminished myself through the years.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:NBEHSEMBURGH wen Kamera Meet my Girl fast forward. Then I got to the point where I was like I'm not setting no New Year's resolutions after that holiday, I'm not resolving for nothing, blah, blah, blah and like that came off the heels of not believing in myself at all. So I guess the question for everyone is I want you to reflect on have you diminished yourself through the years and are you now at the point where you don't believe in yourself at all? And, one step further, is thinking about okay, all the years that I've wasted setting those resolutions to just lose weight and fit in the pants, how many things as a woman did I miss out on resolving that could have created so much good in this world and for my family?
Speaker 2:Like, what about the resolution to donate more? What about the resolution to spend more one-on-one time with my kids? What about the resolution to create date night with my husband? What about the resolution to spend more one-on-one time as friends, as girlfriends? Like I couldn't resolve anything else in my life because I was too busy, failing at the resolution just to simply lose weight. That makes me sad for myself. It makes me sad and I don't want to say it feels like wasted years. But I want to be real with myself. But they were, they were wasted years they were.
Speaker 1:They were wasted For me too, yeah.
Speaker 2:So, like what's the one thing that you feel like you may be missed out on resolving for yourself for a new year because you were so hyper focused on just being healthy.
Speaker 1:I feel like living life, like I feel like that's probably why I don't hate it now, like because my perception of new years is totally different, it's just the night.
Speaker 1:Like I don't think it's I need to make all these crazy decisions right, because I have different things in place now.
Speaker 1:But I think that when I go back to just focusing on the same thing, diminishing everything, it's like the focus of just losing weight I felt like I never focused on the things that I wanted to do to enjoy life and it was always hyper focused on being with somebody that you love, having that kiss that night, waking up and starting this whole new year with all these new goals and new plans, and I'm like I got nothing. Like I just I got nothing. And now I think the perspective is when we just came off separation season, knowing that I'm doing something every single day to work on how I'm performing in this life every day for the next 365 days. So I don't know. I think it's just always sad because there's so much pressure put on all of us that we have to make these changes and it has to be done in 365 days, and I don't think we need to do everything in 365 days if we just make one thing it never works, it never works.
Speaker 2:It never works If you set a goal for that.
Speaker 1:But I think what we've learned picking one thing, one area in our life that we want to improve on, and focusing on the action to make those small changes throughout the year, you can at least end the year feeling a little bit more successful, a little bit more empowered, a little bit more hopeful that this year you're gonna continue to build off that. So I still don't like the actual night, but I love a new year. I love the new year of opportunity, the new year of experience, the new year of growth. So I'm more optimistic now.
Speaker 2:Okay, I have a really hard question for you.
Speaker 1:Are you?
Speaker 2:ready and this probably gonna take a whole another turn to this podcast. Do you really feel that the end of the night has to be met with feeling complete because there's a significant other to kiss at the end of the night? Since you said it, yeah so I, so you have to ring a new year, I said to you Kissing someone.
Speaker 1:Well, I think, because I've always have been surrounded by your family, right? So, like being, have we spent how many new years together?
Speaker 1:Quite a few right Almost close to 10 years, right Probably and that moment is like watching you and Terence kiss all of our other friends and their significant other. My kid is like hugging your daughter or hugging or high fiving Sean or somebody like that, and I'm just like this and it's like that five to 10 seconds that it takes everybody to hug and kiss and then everybody kind of just goes to everyone else. It's sad and it always has made me feel empty, right, and I struggle with that. So I did say to you and we're gonna talk about strategy, but this year I did, on January, december 31st, I did find myself crying on the couch. I took a picture. Did I tell you about the letter? I mean, I just briefly told you, but I don't think you know the letter in itself what I think you should preface.
Speaker 2:this is what I think for the people who do not have a significant other this new years that this is a strategy that you want to leave them with that. How to not feel that feeling of emptiness in that moment?
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, because this has been a build up of years of feeling like this, and I decided last year, in that moment of laying on my couch crying, that I took a picture of myself. It's a terrible picture, but it will be posted this year, cause I did state that in the letter and I wrote this letter to myself about things that I needed to change in my life, not having to do with weights, but having to do with the other area of my life that I'm focusing on, and that's like relationships and feeling certain ways that I feel expectations, boundaries. So I wrote a letter to myself and, knowing that I still continued throughout the year starting January 31st 2022, that whole year, taking those steps to make the decision and changes that I will need coming to this new years, and I feel good about it. I feel excited. I, you know, obviously didn't go as planned as I wanted it to be, cause I'm still going to be alone this new years, but I'm gonna I mean, what about my house?
Speaker 2:But still, it's not the same.
Speaker 1:I loved you, I love Terrence, but it's still not the same, but I wanted already anticipating that with that first five seconds what that would feel like and it's gonna feel a lot different than it would last year and I'll still be alone, but I prepped for that and planned for that. So I think that as we continue to talk about, you know, new Year's resolutions, it's not one day, it's not 31 days in January, it's not even. If you make it to February, congratulations, you make it to February.
Speaker 2:I think February 7th is like the number one, the cut off, like when most Americans are just like. I'm not with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a new year for me. The resolution has to happen in every single day of your life, taking those small little steps, and not even some days it's not even action, but the thought process is there, or you know, just the. It's at the forefront of my mind of what I'm working on, and there's not a whole lot of pressure, it's just gain experience and learning throughout the year, but also taking some action steps to start changing it. Yeah, but that letter. So, nicole, I didn't send you the letter, but I did tell. I thought I told you. Yeah, I did actually send it to my cousin, but it's in my phone. I have the picture, I have the letter and it was something that I had intended to share with you on that night.
Speaker 2:So I think that the challenge really is about creating clarity, and the challenge was to write a letter to your future self. And you know, sometimes when we talk about creating clarity, I feel like that's such an abstract concept, like what does that mean? Cast a vision, what does that mean? Create clarity? You know, this is another strategy which is a little different than the letter that you were writing, but thinking about a letter to your future self allows you to thank yourself for future things, and that is actually creating the strategy, actually creating the clarity for what you need to do.
Speaker 2:Sure, so if let's say, on a low level, you know idea, okay, nicole, I really wanna thank your 2024 self for, you know, really committing to the gym three days a week. Right, if I'm thanking myself for it, that means that's something that I want to do, that is important to me. So it's already created the clarity of what I need to do if I'm thanking myself for it. So now my actions just have to be congruent with what I'm thanking myself for. So that's a beautiful challenge for people to take and just say, like, right now, it's a week before, a few days before the new year sit down, and how hard is it to be alone with yourself for just a few minutes to write a letter. Girl, that's hard right, like that's. The first challenge is give yourself the opportunity to be alone with yourself, to write yourself a letter, to speak truth to yourself, to pray over yourself. If that's the direction you wanna go in and take that time to say I wanna thank my December twenty twenty four self for this.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And speak love to yourself in that message like congratulations, Nicole, we're here, it's another year and thank you for believing in yourself. Thank you for you know committing to X, Y and Z so that you can celebrate yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And cast that vision.
Speaker 1:So I think, in any of the strategies we talk about, I think it's important that we always with New Year's resolutions, like you, started out saying like I want to lose weight, right. But we have to look at the resolutions or any habit that we want to change in life and say what is it that we want? Why is it that we want it? How do we want to feel and how is it going to impact our life and how is it going to impact other people's lives? Like it's? It's layering those questions so that it becomes a sense of your own passion to say I'm going to do it, cause I do remember, like um age. It was like two or three years old.
Speaker 1:I just started going to this church and this woman had um spoke and she was amazing and she spoke about her fitness journey. She spoke about some relationship journeys and her boyfriend at that time, who was her husband, and I was so taken back by the things that she shared because she was so transparent. I actually like at that time I was. I wrote a letter to myself like cause I was so motivated by what she shared and I was in a place of you know, separating from my husband, moving at age, I was like, oh crazy, I put a letter somewhere I don't know what happened to it because I didn't put any effort into the letter. It was like that thought was there, like you, like you mentioned before, you cast this big dream and then it's like, okay, that's it. But there are steps in between that we have to take.
Speaker 1:So, in addition to writing that letter, you have to keep that letter somewhere to remind you what's in that letter. When you're talking about being gentle to yourself, be kind to yourself, thank yourself, you have to follow that up every single day, with waking up in the morning and maybe writing a little thank you note to yourself, or putting a little positive affirmation on a post it and sticking it on your mirror, or have a picture of something that reminds you of what's in that letter. Like, every single day I'm waking up, I know what's in my phone, I know what I wrote in that letter. It's my responsibility to stay consistent to what I'm thinking and what I'm feeling, even if I don't want to feel.
Speaker 1:What I'm feeling and that was your challenge to me this year was feeling, and all these memories are coming up now I'm like, damn, nicole, but it was and was something that you challenged me all year long about feel to heal and I didn't let that go. So it wasn't, I didn't just stop at the letter, right, like you got to keep doing it. So when you think about New Year's resolutions, think about what that is and why is it that you want, how do you want to feel and how is it going to impact you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, motivation is not motivation is nothing.
Speaker 2:It's not how habits and changes are made. Sure, you may feel motivated on the first, the second, the third, and motivation is depletable, like it's gone. So what action? The only thing that's going to be the antidote to feeling frustration and anger and upset is action. Yeah, so what are you doing through the month of January to create that compound effect, to create that momentum pacing yourself? You know it's the same thing of me saying, well, january 1st I'm going to run a 10 K. I am not going to run a 10 K, yeah. But deciding that January 1st you're going to put your sneakers on and walk around the block is a beautiful thing. But also deciding that you're going to continue that February 1st and March 1st and keep moving yourself forward, it's just about moving the needle forward. So stop the big declaration of what needs to change and back the smaller declaration by action is really the best advice anyone's ever given me. You know, it's just about moving the needle forward little by little, but following it up with what needs to be done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know is it like planner time? You know, like remember when we used to get so excited to buy a planner.
Speaker 1:What was her name? Erin Conjure. Yes, we had those. Those are so fancy I don't know what we were writing in there at the time but whatever.
Speaker 2:But like it's planner time and why do we get so excited about a planner? Like come on, you know there are people out there who still get excited. So pretty and organized and get a pen and a new pen and then you stopped using it, like by February.
Speaker 1:You're actually really good.
Speaker 2:You were good at using that planner Well, because I have four kids and I had no choice or else I'd lose something or some one of them like somewhere or forget some practice somewhere.
Speaker 2:So it really became a necessity, but like just the excitement of the new planner and like fresh, new and you were going to sit back to school the bath pads and all that Like, and you were so excited about this fresh new, like you really needed a calendar to tell you what you needed to do for yourself. No, yeah, but like we just placing it on something else instead of really looking at what action we can do for ourselves. And I think that that's the biggest thing. For New Year's, I feel like there's so much like this year. I met with so much sadness for New Year's this this year and I'm excited about it and you know all the things, whatever, but like and I love a good holiday, any kind of holiday.
Speaker 2:Really I but, like I am met with a little sadness this year because I did take some time to reflect and, you know, think about my future self for 2025, even like the end of next year, and I am met with a little bit of sadness thinking about that diminishment. Maybe it's because of this podcast this year, maybe it's because of the conversations we've had about, you know, empowering women and the impact we want to create in this world. So maybe that progression, you know, changed for me because I did want to reflect on that growth for us. But, like all the years, I don't want to say wasted, but it is wasted on what impact I could have created in the world, what impact they could have created on my children, what I could have poured into my marriage differently, what I could have poured into just any anyone differently in this world.
Speaker 2:But I was so stuck in a place of me, me, me, me. I need to do this for me and the whole entire world has to wait. Everything has to wait until I finally get my life together Myself, when the reality is is. I was stuck in a place of myself and ego and needing to look a certain way or feel a certain way or do a certain thing for myself. When, at the end of the day, there's no ego in service and when you truly can serve and be there for others and do amazing things and create impact in this world, you follow like your heart and your soul just follows that and and I miss so many years of that and that's sad For me, it's sad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the flip side of it though, too, and so many parts of my life I think about that, like you know what if I would have done that right? But you're in a place right now where the impact might be hitting harder than it would have if you were doing it five years ago. Yes, I would People might people that you're helping and serving now are receiving it more than they would have?
Speaker 2:Yes, I would have some grace, I would agree with that, but I think that it's okay to reflect on. You know what, like? I'm all about the ownership, like, take some ownership on how many resolutions you've been disgusted about.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that's why you're so passionate right about right now, because you sat in that place of sadness where you're like I don't want another woman to feel that way. Like just listen to us, Like we're just like sharing things to share things. We're sharing things to maybe help prevent you from maybe going through some of the things that we've went through thinking the things we want. You know, we thought.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and to stop holding it Like. There are so many women who I know are reaping the benefits of, you know, their actions finally falling congruent to their goals, yet they're still hiding, they're still not sharing it, they're still not, you know, telling their best friend hey, go buy this sweater at Marshall's, it's half off. Because they're still stuck in a place where this is for me, no, it's not for you, because everything that you're changing for yourself is in service of other people and that has to be the message. Like I don't want to go into a whole rant on women tearing down other women, because we will never get out of here and they were like just hold this, we got five minutes, so sorry.
Speaker 2:Like I do not want to end with what I got to say about that because they will not be ringing in any happy new years, but like making a decision for yourself needs to include that you do not have to tear anyone else down in order to make you feel a little bit better. Like what's the whole thing where my candle?
Speaker 2:you know, blowing your candles not gonna make my shine any brighter it is a hundred percent the truth and we need, if we don't resolve anything, to resolve that Like, let's resolve that jazz because it is too much. But let's finish up with a few strategies.
Speaker 1:But before you, even we talk about the strategies, talking about on challenges and we've done challenges like that before where, if you feel you're in a position where you're not offering people compliments and support, get uncomfortable and wake up in the morning and say what's one thing I can do to make somebody smile, what's one thing that I can do that makes me feel really uncomfortable. But I know that I'm providing service into this world, so we are going to come back soon with some recaps and go over that. So we're excited about that as we enter the new year.
Speaker 2:Yes, this is actually closing out our first season of and that's so crazy because I'm Rob over here.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you know if it's popping up in your feed, but this is. This is actually the anniversary of the time that you and I met Four years ago. Four years ago, right when I came in, sat right here with Rob and kind of share this dream with him that I wanted to do this podcast. And he didn't give up on my dream, but I did give up on myself. I gave up on my voice, I gave up on my technology, like I was so scared to do this alone. And see, you're here now sitting with me and we're moving into season two, season two.
Speaker 2:So we are actually going to come back to you in another two weeks Dropping season two, which I'm so excited about, and, like when we first started talking about doing this, I'm like is this really going to be a thing?
Speaker 1:like we're really going to do this and, if nothing comes out of it, wait it should be told, though, like you, you, I would have wanted to do this with you, but you did not really like speaking in this forum. So look at, look at.
Speaker 2:No, I think, yes, yes, I don't think I like I didn't know about speaking in this form and I know how to speak At that time I'm like come on, come on. I think that at that first season that we talked about doing this together, it just wasn't the right season in business in life and you know things happen when they're supposed to happen.
Speaker 2:But I am really excited to close out the first season and I would challenge you to that five second while you're waiting for AJ to come and hug you, or that five second while You're thinking about that is really think about. One of the biggest things that you completed this year is the fact that we sat here for an entire season and was able to serve others, and all those people are standing oh girl, I'm ready, I'm going in this year.
Speaker 1:I'm feeling good. It's in my letter. I'm not going to cry, I'm going to live. I'm going to live in the home of moment.
Speaker 2:All right. So our strategies for the new year are and we're going to have a lot of posting on, you know New Year's two but our strategies for the new year really is creating that clarity for yourself and writing that letter to your future self. Writing that letter to your future holiday twenty twenty four self what do you want that to look like Is definitely my biggest one starting a new year, my favorite strategy is creating albums in your phone.
Speaker 1:So three albums I would suggest putting. If you are on some type of weight loss journey, I want you to make an album that says on non scale victories, so that you really learn how to celebrate some of those things that are unrelated to the scale. The second album reflection. So you can just throw anything in there a video, it could be a meme, it could be a text message somebody sent to you, it could be a situation from your notepads that you just put a little note down, but a place to reflect is really, really important. And then just another, pick another album of just me and take pictures of yourself. Enjoy the ride. We've had five years of really trying to learn how to appreciate the changes that we were making other than the scales hundred percent.
Speaker 2:I think that's all we got for New Year's conversation. What do you think about that? So we got ready to close out season one high five. Yeah, we are coming back in two weeks with season two dropping and we are coming with a really, really fun episode. Tracy and I are taking a walk down memory lane with our top five. Top five amazing moments for twenty, twenty three on our podcast and some really, really great ones that maybe Rob can give us some videos and we can do some bloopers.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think we need those bloopers anywhere, but we are just so excited. We want to wish you a beautiful, beautiful new year's yeah everything whatever you're celebrating, just be in the moment, enjoy all of it and thank you for writing this right read with us for the season.
Speaker 1:Yes, happy holidays everybody. Bye.
