5 Ways to Not Give Up Your Social Life and Still Reach Your Goals
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GIRL! Don’t let social situations give you anxiety!!!! Life is meant to be LIVED, not meant to focus exclusively on weight loss. Going out and enjoying time with your friends and family should be a priority, something that brings you happiness and joy, and not something that causes you stress and anxiety. That’s why in this episode, I want to share a few tips on how to enjoy your social life while still working towards your health and fitness goals.
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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 dish you 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, and welcome back to another episode of the Embrace Your Real Podcast. Today, we are talking about five ways to not give up your social life and still reach your goals. Girl, I don't want you to let social situations give you anxiety. Life is truly meant to be lived. It's not meant to be exclusively focused solely on your weight loss or solely on your fitness goal. You have to go out and enjoy time with friends and family, and that should be a priority because it should be something that brings you happiness and joy. And not something that causes you stress and anxiety, which I know it does for many of us who might have fitness goals, so we don't know how to navigate these social situations. And so that's why in this episode, I want to share with you a few tips on how to enjoy your social life while still working towards your health and fitness goals.
But before I dive in, I wanted to share the super sweet review comes from McKenzie Ray Miller. She says "10,000 over 10. Julie has inspired me since the moment I found her on Instagram. This podcast is a godsend and she is inspiring so many more people with it. I don't miss an episode." Thank you so much for this review. I really appreciate your reviews. They just help me know how we're doing as well as it really does help the growth of this podcast. And it helps the podcast be able to reach more women in hopes of them truly living their most authentic life and embracing their real. So if you have an Apple device, an iPhone, an iPad, a MacBook, you can go to the Beautiful Podcast app, which is a purple app and you type in Embrace Your Real first, make sure you hit subscribe so that you never miss an episode.
And second, you can scroll down. It literally, you guys takes less than 15 seconds and you can leave a review. And like I said, that really does just help us out. If you do leave a review, please screenshot it and send it to me in a direct message. I would love to personally respond back to you. I love doing voice memos back to you and just letting you know how much I appreciate you. So thank you in advance. Okay. So let's dive in to my five tips for enjoying your social life.
Number one, do your research and plan ahead. So you can pick your restaurant wisely. Before heading out, I like to always look up the menu online to see what they have to offer, and if they don't have food or if they don't have a meal or foods that are on the menu that I know will make me feel good, then I'll typically look for another restaurant. I personally have my restaurants around my area that I live in that I know exactly what I like to eat. I know what their macros are and everything and that in and of itself, just the familiarity that makes me feel good. And it makes me feel confident about me going to eat there.
To be honest, there are so many restaurants that have macro friendly options. So it should never make you feel anxious to go out to eat with your friends or family. If a friend suggests a place, but the menu items look like something that you wouldn't enjoy or something that wouldn't make you feel good. You can simply suggest another place that you want to go. In most cases, they don't mind actually switching it up. But here's the other thing, if that's not an option like you're going there for a birthday party or a celebration, or you just don't have the ability to pick the restaurant. Don't stress. Here are some of the tips that I personally practice, if I go to a place that might not be my first pick, but I still want to spend time with friends and family.
I will always look for a meal that has grilled or broiled protein over fried. I will ask for sauces or dressings on the side so that I can control the portion. If the meals are larger, I will either ask to split with a friend or I will ask for a to go box at the start of the meal so I can put some of the portion aside first and eat the portion that I have on my plate, see how I feel. And then if I want to go in for the rest of the meal, I can always take it out of the to go box. But most importantly, I want you to not stress about it. I want you to eat intention, slow your bites, drink lots of water in between bites because after all, just like one salad isn't going to make you hit all of your goals overnight, one meal out isn't going to completely ruin all of the hard work that you've been putting in. So I want you to slow down, enjoy it and be mindful.
Number two, budget your macros. I always like to think of my macro targets like a budget. I personally know how much I get to eat each day. And it's up to me to decide how I spend it. So for example, if I know that I'm going out for pizza on Friday night, I know that pizza is a carb and fat dominant food. So throughout the day, I'll budget my carbs and fats accordingly. So for breakfast and lunch, I'll focus really on loading up my protein so that when I go to eat the pizza, I have more room in my budget to eat it without going over my macros. This will allow you to actually eat what you want, go out with your friends and family and eat it guilt-free and actually enjoy it. Because what's the point of eating out if you're just going to feel guilty about it.
Also remember that your overall macro targets aren't that strict. What truly determines weight loss or weight gain, depending on what your goal is, is your overall caloric intake and overall caloric expenditure. How much you are expending, you are outputting versus how much you are intaking. And the most important thing that I want to just stress here is that you are having enough protein to preserve your muscle mass during a caloric deficit, AKA, a body fat loss phase, if that's what you're in and your overall health. So think about this. Think about protein being something that's mandatory in your financial budget, like rent or utilities or groceries, and then carbs and fats are the remainder of your budget. Things that are like entertainment and fun and things that maybe you're saving towards. Still important, but not as important as things like rent. If you were to put off your rent and not pay it, eventually it's going to catch up with you.
So just think about protein being your number one, overall, most important macro that you want to hit. And then the remainder of your calories coming from carbs and fats. And those can be interchangeable, especially if you're going out to eat. So just budget your macros accordingly. I, if I know what I'm going to be having that night, like if it is pizza, I will always enter that into my Macros Plus, which is my macro tracking app first. And then I just plan the remainder of my meals and snacks with pretty much protein dominant foods, but I still don't limit my carbs. Because I don't want to get to the meal at Friday night and feel so hungry that I completely just go over my macros because I deprived myself all day long. So I'll still have carbs and fats. I'll just be more mindful of that. And I'll look for foods that have higher in protein for the day leading up to my meals so that I have more to work with when I go out to eat.
Number three, eat only one plate. So if you're going to a family gathering or a party at a friend's, I want you to try and follow the one plate rule. Fill up your plate with what you want and enjoy that one plate. I always like to think about it like this, the hundredth chip isn't going to taste any better than the first chip. The second cookie or the third cookie or the fourth or fifth or sixth isn't going to taste better than the first cookie. The second plate isn't going to be more delicious than the first. If things tasted amazing, just appreciate them for what they are. Or you can ask your friend and family, if you can take some home for later, or you can even ask them for the recipe so that you can make it on your own in the future. Just remember, just because you aren't going to eat more of it in the moment, doesn't mean that you can't eat more of it later, or that you'll never have it again.
Number four, focus on protein, protein, protein. So like I mentioned earlier, when you go out to eat, I want you to try and opt for more protein dominant meals, meaning that protein is the center of the meal. So protein is typically the hardest macro for people to hit and carbs being the easiest. So I want you to look for a dish that is kind of centered around like broiled or grilled chicken, steak, salmon, tofu. Like that is the main part of the dish, obviously, depending on what your eating preference is, because most of these dishes will come with a perfect balance of carbs, veggies on the side anyways. So just remember what I mentioned earlier. Try to opt for sauces or dressings on the side so that you can have them in moderation and you are in control of the serving size.
For example, if I'm having like a big salad, like my go-to at Texas Roadhouse, of course you know that I'm going to have those Texas Roadhouse rolls and honey cinnamon butter. They're so good, but I always get the grilled chicken salad because it's such a big salad, it has a huge portion of chicken. And I always get the dressing on the side. And what I personally do is I dip my fork in the dressing and then I eat it along with my salad. So it's super delicious, I'm getting to control the dressing and that's what you can do with pretty much any dish, even like pasta dishes. They can have the sauce on the side and that way you're in control of the portion. And you're able to eat that accordingly.
You can also try this if you go to a friends and families for gathering, so try your best to focus on piling their plate with like half or three fourths of the plate, being protein, and then leave the remainder of the plate for other foods, carbs, fats, things like that. Because remember when you focus on protein first, you'll be less likely to be hungry for other things, like overeat other things, because protein is the macronutrients that's most satiating, meaning that it's going to keep you fuller longer. So just like I said, focus on protein that is typically always the center of a good solid dish. And then you can just eat mindfully.
Number five is most important. You have to be consistent longterm. Like I mentioned, if you are consistent with nourishing your body, one meal out isn't going to undo all of the progress that you've been putting in. So whether you tracked your meal out or you didn't, I want you to acknowledge it, I want you to accept it and I want you to move forward. Remember that the next meal is your next opportunity to get back to eating according to your macros, no guilt and no shame. Because at the end of the day, consistency is what matters, not perfection. And this is a mindset trap. I want you guys to really focus on just overall being consistent and remembering along the way, there's going to be things that come up. There's going to be celebrations, there's going to be last minute dinner plans, things like that, that maybe you didn't plan. You have to learn to acknowledge it, accept it and move forward. That is a part of integrating this into a lifestyle that is sustainable, and that's going to serve you longterm. So let me recap those five things.
Number one, do your research and plan ahead if you can.
Number two, budget your macros. Remember that your macros are similar to a financial budget.
Number three, eat only one plate or the one plate rule. Number three, try to practice the one plate rule if you can.
Number four, focus on protein, protein, protein, protein being the center of your meal, and then build the remainder of the meal around that.
And number five, most importantly, be consistent longterm.
If you loved this episode, I know you will also love episode 65, How to Enter The Fall Without Food Fear. I know that with all the fall treats and the holidays quickly approaching, it causes many of us to experience a major food anxiety. So in episode 65, I give you my best tips for navigating the season full of treats with complete confidence so that you can both enjoy it and still reach your goals. You can easily go tune in to that episode by finding it in the link in the show notes below. If you found this episode helpful, I bet it could help somebody else out as well. You can easily go share this episode with a friend by clicking the three dots in the lower right hand corner of your screen.
If you are listening on Apple Podcasts, you can hit that copy link. You can easily go share it with them in a text message, or you can simply screenshot this and post it up on your story. I would love to hear your thoughts on this, and I would love to connect with you. So be sure to tag me and tag Embrace Your Real Instagram account so that we can chat with you. I hope this episode was helpful. I hope that this gives you some practical tips that you can take and implement into your own life wherever you are. Just remember that you do not have to give up your social life to reach your goals. That is all that I have for today's episode. Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll talk to you in the next one.
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, Julie A Ledbetter, Yes, it's with an A in 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.