5 Eating Habits You Need to Break ASAP
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After working with women for several years on healing their relationship with food, fitness and their body, there are 5 eating habits that I found to be the most common. So if you, too, are struggling with these relationships, then I’m guessing you have at least one, if not ALL, of these habits. And sister, I’m about to tell you why they are problems and why need to break them asap.
Be sure to check out 18: What Happens When You Don’t Eat Enough and 51: Are You Eating Enough Fiber? Both are super relevant to what I discuss in this episode and I know you’ll find them extremely helpful!
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey there beautiful human, you're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I'd issue a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get in and let's go.
Hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Embrace Your Real Podcast. I am so grateful that you are here spending some time with me today, wherever you're tuning in. We have listeners all over the world and over 100 countries strong, whether you're walking, you're jogging, you're cooking, you're cleaning, you are doing the dang thing girl. You are choosing to show up this year to become the best possible version of yourself so that you can go out and serve others in your best capacity and in your best self.
Now today's episode, I'm really excited to talk about because after working with several thousand women over the past years on really helping them heal their relationship with food, fitness and their body, I have found that there are five eating habits to be very common within working with so many women. So if you are struggling in these relationships, I'm guessing you have at least one, if not all of these habits. So in this episode, I want to kind of tell you why it's important that you need to break this habit ASAP.
But before I do, I have to share the super sweet review. It comes from KatieJ23. She says, "Focusing on becoming the best version of myself throughout the years has been a challenge. What a breath of fresh air Julie Ledbetter is. She has wisdom and strength that comes from an authentic story. She has a unique ability to keep it real while she inspires you to heal and succeed in the things that matter most. Highly recommend her podcast." Ooh, thank you so much. I love it. If you haven't already rated and reviewed the podcast, it takes less than 30 seconds and it helps us out so much. So if you could do that in the new year, start off the new year strong, scooch over to Apple Podcast, click that rate and review button, screenshot it, send it to me in a DM and I will personally respond back to you.
So what are these five habits that you need to break? Let's dive in. Habit number one, not eating all day. I want to start off by saying I haven't eaten all day is not a badge of honor to be earned. And I hear this all the time. Like people brag about it, but really I'm not quite sure why they're bragging about this. When you don't eat all day, you're not honoring your body with the nourishment that it needs. You're punishing it, you're depriving it and you're disrespecting it. And here's the thing. I get it though, because I remember in college when I was going to school full time and I was also working two full time jobs. I would go to school in the morning. And then my day job, I was a manager at a salon. And then at nighttime, I was a waitress at Texas Roadhouse.
And I remember telling myself if I can get through the next 12 hours of working without eating, woe is me. And it was like this, almost the sense of accomplishment and it's disgusting looking back at it. So if that's you, if you're in that place, I want you to know that you're not alone, but I also want you to know that, like I said, that is not honoring your body. And also I want to remind you like, yes, eating too much by going into a caloric surplus will lead to weight gain, but actually eating too little can also lead to weight gain as well because you're depriving your body what it needs. And you're also depriving your mindset, which will typically lead to binge episodes. And that was totally me in college. I remember there were some days where I felt so accomplished because I got through a 12 hour window of not eating and I would go to bed hungry.
And then there were other days where I just couldn't take it anymore. And I would have these crazy overeating binge episodes in my car and I felt so embarrassed. I actually chat all about this in episode 18. What happens when you don't eat enough. So if you struggle with this mentality of trying to not eat all day, this episode is 100% for you. I have linked it in the show notes for you to go listen after this episode.
Habit number two, eating less because you ate more the day before. Did you know that even if you didn't work out, your body still burns calories moving throughout your day, which means even if you skipped your workout, you still need to eat. And did you also know that your body still burns calories even if you're laying all day binge watching Netflix? Which means even if you're sitting all day, you still need to eat. So basically no matter what you're doing, you need to eat. So I don't care what you did or didn't do yesterday. Do not start your day by thinking that you need to deprive yourself to make up for yesterday. This can really cause a dangerous cycle of over restricting and overindulging. And it's a cycle that you don't want to get yourself into. This was me too.
I remember if I went to a birthday party or if I went to a girl's night out, or if I ate something bigger than I normally did, I would wake up with this mentality of like, okay, I'm just going to skip breakfast. And this deprivation mentality did not serve me because it only made me want more and more. And it only made me think about food even more than I was already thinking about it.
Habit number three, ignoring your cravings. I think that this is one of the biggest mistakes that we could make. Whether we like it or not, we only have a certain amount of willpower and eventually that willpower will run out. So the more that you deprive yourself, once that willpower runs out, the more you are likely to overindulge because you've allowed that craving to build and build and build. And then it requires you to eat more in order to satisfy the craving. Does that make sense? So if you've been having a craving for pizza, most likely, if you ate one piece right now, it will likely satisfy that craving. But if you ignore and suppress that craving, it's only going to get stronger the longer that you go without satisfying.
So let's say your willpower runs out five days from now. It's likely that you are going to need three or four or five slices of pizza to satisfy that same craving, simply because you didn't allow yourself the opportunity to eat the food that you wanted to eat in that moment. So essentially the more you suppress the craving, the bigger the craving gets, and it's going to likely lead to rebound. So sure you can take everyone else's top tips on reducing food cravings, but as long as you keep working to reduce it and not actually satisfy it, you're likely going to be continuing to battle the same craving over and over. This will not only trigger you to overindulge on that food eventually. It will likely also cause you to develop an unhealthy relationship with food. So again, if you are having a craving, eat the food that you are craving and eat it in moderation, and you will see that that craving will no longer control you or control your mindset.
Habit number four, working out more to earn your food. I need to tell you this PSA, that food is not something that you need to earn. Food is something that you need. Your body needs food to not only thrive, but it needs it to survive. So remind yourself that no matter how many calories your Apple Watch or your Fitbit tells you that you've burned today, you are still deserving of food. You don't need to workout before you eat breakfast or burn extra calories before you eat takeout from your favorite restaurant or eat less because you didn't move more. That's one thing I love so much about macro counting is that it reminds me that no matter what, this is the amount that my body needs.
And that's the beautiful thing again about this customized approach, because it takes into consideration what your job is, what you do every day. And then what your average amount of output in terms of movement is. Honestly, it has really helped me personally break free from this mindset of having to earn my food, because I'm no longer looking at trying to eat less. It's like, how much am I able to eat according to what my body needs. And so it's almost like eating up to that amount instead of restricting it.
Habit number five, not eating enough nutrient dense foods. Now I get a lot of women coming to me saying that they're struggling to feel full, even though they're hitting their macros. They ate enough calories, they ate the proper amount of carbs, fat and protein, but why are they still hungry? Oftentimes it's because they're not eating enough nutrient dense food. So what do I mean by that? If your whole entire day is made up of protein bars and shakes and supplements, instead of actual food, it's likely that you are going to still feel hungry. Well, of course, if you watch my full days of eating on my Instagram story, I too have protein bars, I have one scoop of protein per day to really make sure that I'm hitting my protein and I believe in balance.
But you have to remember that if you are struggling with feeling full, more nutrient dense food is going to allow you a larger volume. The real problem with this, with eating these lower nutrient dense foods is that they typically leave you feeling hungrier than you would, if you would have eaten a more nutrient dense foods. And also nutrient dense foods obviously are packed with vitamins, minerals and fiber that's going to help you feel fuller longer. So just keep that in mind. And again, remember too much of anything is never good either. So be mindful of the amount of nutrient dense food that you're eating, because I know for me, if I'm eating too much nutrient dense food, then I just feel really sluggish and very bloated. So finding that good balance of non nutrient dense foods paired with nutrient dense foods. And it's going to take some time for your body to kind of tell you this is a good amount of the balance of non nutrient dense to nutrient dense.
I want to share a fun fact about fiber. So fiber is a type of carbohydrate that your body cannot digest. This makes it highly thermogenic. Only half of each gram of carbohydrates from fiber is digested. So you actually end up absorbing two calories per grams of carbs rather than four calories, which is the typical amount that carbohydrate would be. However, don't subtract your fiber from your total carbs because it's not worth your time especially if you're counting your macros. Go by the protein, carbon, fat allotment that your body needs. And also whenever you're looking at like a food, you'll see net carbs, that is a advertisement. Basically, that is a good way for a company to say, look, we have lower carb food, but just remember that when you're counting your macros, you need to count the total carb allotment, not the net carb.
Also, if you are wanting to know how much fiber you should be getting daily, this is actually something that I wish I would have learned sooner because I didn't realize that I was eating too much fiber. And when you eat too much fiber, you can feel very, very bloated. I just thought that, oh my gosh, I can't eat any of these foods, but it was actually that my fiber amount was way too high for what my body needed. So tune into episode 51. Are you eating enough fiber? In that episode, I give you a super simple way to calculate it yourself. So I will go ahead and link that in the show notes for you below to go easily listen. So again, these five habits that you need to break ASAP.
Number one, not eating all day. Remember that is not a badge of honor.
Number two, eating less because you ate more the day before.
Number three, ignoring the cravings.
Number four, working out more to earn your food.
And number five, not eating enough nutrient dense foods.
And again, if you haven't checked out episode 18. What happens when you don't eat enough. And episode 51, are you eating enough fiber? Both are super relevant to this episode. And I know that you will find them extremely helpful so be sure to go tune into those. I will link them in the show notes below. I hope that you found this episode helpful. If you did, please feel free to do screenshot this, post it up on your story. You can tag me Julie Ledbetter and Embrace Your Real account. I always love seeing who is tuning in and what your aha moments are. If you have a friend, or a coworker, or sister, or someone that you feel like would really benefit from this episode, I just ask that you share it out. You can copy the link, send it to them in a text message. Sharing is caring. And I appreciate you guys so, so much and I'll talk to you guys on the next episode.
All right sister, that's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, JulieALedbetter, yes, it's with an A in the middle for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.