What are your favourite excuses?

I had the pleasure of attending a Women’s Self Care Retreat in Costa Rica with Evolve Holistic at the beginning of February, and it far exceeded my expectations! Among the many useful things I brought home, learning how to identify and re-write my personal mantras was one of the most significant.

We started by looking at the things that we did well, then listed the things that we wanted to do but are not, and went through all the excuses for why those things aren’t happening.

Say you want to get to the gym more often so you can reach your fitness goals, but you’re busy and you don’t have a lot of time and the traffic is bad and you’re tired and you need to do this other thing that suddenly seems more important…

You likely spend a lot of time telling yourself that you’re busy or tired, which has become very convincing. Your excuses begin to work like a mantra, which is a phrase that you say over and over for an effect. “I should go but I’m busy. I should go but I’m tired. I should go but I’ve got other things to do.” becomes “I’m tired, I’m too busy.”

The next step is simple, but not as easy as it sounds: you gotta cut the bulls#!t.

You know you’ll feel better after you workout, no one ever regrets a workout! Check where you spend your time, and make fitness a priority over netflix, sleeping in, going for drinks, that event you don’t really want to go to anyway, etc. – say no to one thing so you can say yes to another.

(Here’s where feeling selfish can come up for many people, especially parents. As Jackie from Evolve Holistic said: “In order to be selfless, you must first be selfish.” Read – you can’t pour from an empty cup! Think of it as teaching those around you good self-care too, as I’m sure no parent wants their children to grow up learning that it’s normal to not take care of themselves.)

Once you’ve identified your favourite excuses and how they influence you, re-write your mantra to reflect the behaviour you want to see. “I’m too tired and too busy” becomes “I will be energized by my workout and I am worth making my fitness a priority.”

(Protip: avoid negatives like “I will not skip the gym”, as it sounds way too much like “I will skip the gym” – choose “I will make time for the gym” instead.)

Once you’ve got your new mantra, try it out and see if it feels true. Tweak it as needed, and then put it into action! Say it and write it as much as possible.

“I will be energized by my workout and I am worth making my fitness a priority.”

“I will be energized by my workout and I am worth making my fitness a priority.”

“I will be energized by my workout and I am worth making my fitness a priority.”

Repeat your mantra every day, every hour, as often as needed! When your mindset changes, you will change how you approach the challenge, and you will find success where you didn’t before. It’s not easy, but it is certainly worth it!

–

I’d love to hear from you – what are your favourite BS excuses, and how can you change them? Email me at meagan.walker@goodlifefitness.com.

 

 

How I’m learning to control cravings.

Think about some of those times that you:

• stayed on the couch even when you wanted to work out
• caved in and ate something you knew wasn’t good for you
• didn’t do your physiotherapy exercises even though you wanted the injury to heal

Have you ever looked back on one of those unhelpful decisions and asked yourself: “What the hell was I thinking? I WANT this thing, why can’t I keep myself on track?!?”

Pema Chödrön to the rescue!

Pema is one of my favourite mindfulness teachers, she has this uncanny ability to be able to approach some of the most difficult topics with a blatant simplicity and humour that make classical teachings and meditations very accessible.

The following is an excerpt from her audiobook, ‘Getting Unstuck’, and I highly recommend that everyone take the time to listen to the whole thing. It’s been life-changing for me, and has enhanced the relationship that I have with fitness and life in general.

Think of one of those things that you just can’t seem to do, or stop doing, and keep it in mind as you read on:

“It’s the simplest thing and the most profound thing at the same time.

We’re all like young children who have a bad case of itchy scabies, and we are old enough to scratch but not old enough to know that when we scratch it, it spreads, and it gets worse.

And this is an analogy for what we all do. We have discomfort, an itch that goes along with the scabies, and we scratch it and scratch it. And what happens is we get very temporary symptom relief, but it spreads, and pretty soon we are scratching all over our whole body, and the whole thing is bleeding, and now we’re really suffering.

So in this analogy, the child is taken to the doctor who prescribes an ointment, and this is like going to a spiritual teacher and being given the teachings, and in particular being given a meditation.

‘Learning to stay’ is a description of the meditation.  Learning to stay is also a description of staying with the itch and not scratching. In other words scratching is a way of trying to escape the fundamental discomfort – the itch. What we could also call insecurity, or that bad feeling that comes over us.

So we itch and we itch, and then we go to the doctor and they say ‘you have scabies itch, if you keep scratching it gets worse, so what you have to do is to stop scratching and apply this ointment – the teachings and the practice, ways to sort of work with the itch, and then you can heal.’

And if the child has enough love for themselves and wants to heal, they will follow the doctors’ instructions and they’ll go through the discomfort of feeling an itch that they’re not scratching and then gradually they will have their own reward. It’s not really the doctor that gets rewarded, or anybody else, it’s the child that experiences that the rash starts to get less, and the urge to scratch gets less, and then the itch starts itching less.

And as any of us know, particularly those who have had really strong addictions this can take a very long time. Nevertheless, it’s the only way – because if you keep scratching, then the itch gets worse.”

Take a moment to perhaps read that over again.

The ‘itch’ can take many forms, but in the fitness world it can often be recognized as a craving to eat something that’s considered ‘off limits’ for a person trying to change their diet for weight loss or other health reasons. For the purpose of this post I’ll draw on my own experience – let’s call the itch a craving for sugar and ice cream is how I might scratch it.

Learning to stay with the sugar craving instead of giving in to ice cream is a huge task that can be enormously difficult for many different reasons (like fatigue, stress, gut imbalances, habits, etc.), but if you can look objectively at that uncomfortable craving and learn from it instead of indulging then step by step you will get closer to your goal.

Gradually, as you get better at staying with the craving it will lose some of it’s power over you. It may never go completely away, but you will have developed the skills to deal with it, as well as the experience to know that if you don’t scratch you will heal.

Often we aren’t even aware of the itch, or what forms our scratching may take, and this can cause a lot of unhappiness and feelings of being out of control. If you can apply this teaching to these uncomfortable situations and add a big dose of patience and compassion, you will find that it can help you gain more control over your entire life.

I would love to hear what you think of this teaching!

Wishing you success along your journey,

PS – Check out the ‘Overdrive’ app that connects with your local library and listen to audiobooks for free!

Getting past ‘tomorrow logic’, one step at a time.

Hi everyone, my name is Meagan, and I am a procrastinator.

I used to like to think that I just worked well under pressure, but I have come to face facts: I will put something off until I can no longer put it off, and then occasionally I will put it off just a bit longer. Until tomorrow, which is conveniently forever in the future.

Enter my new best friend, Gretchen Rubin – or more specifically her book Better Than Before.  I feel like I connect with Gretchen’s writing on a near-spiritual level, and since beginning to read it (and listening to her podcast Happier,) I have made some very do-able changes to my daily routine that have made a big impact, like if it only takes one minute then do it RIGHT NOW.

Out of the many useful things that I have gotten from this book, one of the most valuable for me has been the idea of ‘tomorrow logic’ – that somehow the Me of tomorrow will have the desire/skills/time/whatever to do the task that the Me of today doesn’t want to do.

It seems so silly when you see it written like that, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who imagines that if I just wait until tomorrow to do this thing I’ll have a good night’s sleep and the alignment of all the stars and planets to help me do it far better than I could possibly do it today. By now you would think that a lifetime of procrastination should have taught me that things don’t work this way, but alas.

In assigning tasks to tomorrow, we miss out on the vital importance of acting TODAY. No one likes to look back at all the yesterdays that have piled up and realize that if we had only started this thing before, we would be much farther ahead.

The key is taking a step right now, even if it’s just tidying up the space you need to do the thing. Gretchen talks about the one-coin argument: if one coin isn’t enough to make someone wealthy, what about if you add another? Or another? At what point does adding one more coin make someone wealthy? With a habit like fitness, every step you take or rep you complete adds a coin to your pile.

So whether it’s a fitness goal, a book you want to read or write, your taxes, or a business you want to start, just take one step at a time, never mind if the stars have aligned or not! Seek out someone who can support you along the way – maybe a friend, a trainer, a teacher, or an online accountability group. Put it in your schedule, IN PEN, and start adding coins to your pile or steps to your marathon.

Just think of how grateful your future self will be that you began today!

Need a coach? Contact me at meagan.walker@goodlifefitness.com to get started. 🙂

 

‘Santosa’, self-appreciation, and how not to throw away time.

I saw this post on Pinterest about a year ago, and it struck me with such a sense of ‘oh my gosh, of course!’ that it almost knocked me over. This kind of statement is glaringly obvious in retrospect, but like many seemingly simple things it needed to be pointed out at the right time. It has subsequently been woven into my life and reinforced by other such realizations, and I hope what I write to you is helpful!

I work in the fitness industry, and like most of our culture it is hugely focused on physical appearance and abilities, whether it be lifting heavier, acrobat-like yoga poses, or attaining off your ‘perfect gym/beach body’. With the infinite diversity that exists in the world it is completely unreasonable to expect yourself to be equal to or better than anyone else you meet, but we try anyway. Why is that?

The short answer is money made from product advertising, but the long answer is much more complicated. There are many external and internal factors that influence why people feel the need to look or behave like someone else, and I am happy to set aside time to talk about those with you if you like, but since there are already many great books dedicated to the topic I’ll stick to my blog post and leave some recommendations for further reading at the bottom.

Any time you see someone you feel you want to emulate, chances are you need to purchase a product or service to make it happen. Clothes, makeup, a gym membership, a book or video. People who have something to sell know this, and they have become masters at driving business based on making you feel somehow inadequate.

Think about it – if you loved yourself just the way you are, would you spend as much money on things that change/enhance your image or performance? Probably not. Each dollar that you spend isn’t simply money out of pocket, it’s the time you spent to earn that money. If you make $20/hr, something that is $100 is equal to 5 hours of your life. Is it really worth the time you will never get back?

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” -Henry David Thoreau

Enter Santosa – a Sanskrit word that means ‘contentment’, something that is not to be confused with complacency.

Santosa means appreciating your current situation, body, abilities etc., while still dreaming and working towards goals. Santosa creates a solid foundation to leap from, and can save you a lot of grief that comes from financial stress, physical injuries from over-doing it at the gym, and general unhappiness that comes from not feeling good enough already. It will help determine what you really want to spend your money/time/effort on.

It sounds like a miracle word, but the miracle only occurs when you commit to being patient with the process. There will be plenty of times you feel Santosa’s influence improve your decisions and attitude, and there will be times that you completely forget about it and your old habits hijack your thoughts and actions. The trick is to not get upset with your lapses in judgement, don’t beat yourself up over all the things you should have done differently in the past and give up, because time keeps moving and your future self will thank you for working so hard now. Trust me, you WILL look back with gratitude if you stick with the tough part now.

To bring it back to my inspiration, “appreciate others’ beauty without questioning your own”, means that you don’t have to be like that person over there to be happy. I spent many years and many tears feeling inadequate in the face of comparison. I just couldn’t be like all the people I saw around me.

“Comparison is the thief of joy.” – Theodore Roosevelt

Looking back, my failure to be ‘like them’ IS COMPLETELY REASONABLE. I am not those people, I can never be those people, because they are not me. They do not have my genetics, or life experiences, or imagination. They are their own people, and the only person I can be is me because everyone else is already taken.

I have begun the difficult process of freeing myself from advertising influences that tell me I need to be different or better or similar to whatever image they are selling. I am working hard to let go of the jealously and unhappiness that comes from trying to compare myself to someone who will never be like me, because that is not useful to me. I am instead practicing the art of Santosa, contentment, so that I may be able to appreciate and learn from other people without questioning my own worth.

It’s often difficult, tedious work. But it’s also a process that has revealed riches within myself that I never ever dreamed I could possess, and it’s taken time for me to claim them. I hope that this can help you can discover your own unique value, and I would love to hear your thoughts. ❤

Extra Reading:

Taking The Leap by Pema Chodron (You can also get the same content in audiobook format with Getting Unstuck, and Pema’s sense of humour really shines.)

Lean In by Cheryl Sandberg

Blink: The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcom Gladwell

The Beauty Myth by Naiomi Wolf (this one is INTENSE and will probably make you angry, but it’s worth a skim at the very least. 😉

Owning Your Identity

“I was once afraid of people saying ‘who does she think she is?’ But now I have the courage to stand and say, ‘this is who I am.'” – Oprah Winfrey

It’s been a long time coming, and certainly I have a long way to go yet, but after seeing this quotation from Oprah it struck me that I have been spending far too much of my time worrying that people will hear what I say or see what I do and think that I’m not ‘qualified’ in some way. It’s a mindset that lurks behind the innocent disguise of wanting to ‘be prepared’ or ‘well informed’ before you make any statements or movements towards big goals. It’s a sneaky undermining of your acceptance and use of your experiences and knowledge that keeps you from feeling ‘ready’ to make the leap into greatness. Well as Amy Poehler said, “Great people do things before they’re ready. They do things before they know they can do it.”

My new mantra is ‘this is who I am’. Each and every day, I will own my experiences, my knowledge, my personality, my feelings. Alongside my daily gratitude practice I will add this mantra, and I will embrace not only who I want to be, but who I already am.

I’ve got this, and I think you do too.

Fear, singing, and letting go of the rope swing.

Mexico, 2009. I was on a family trip with the extended in-laws that included an ATV day tour with a stop for lunch at a river where it flows under a bridge. Not a huge bridge, but big enough. Attached to the bridge, adjacent to one of the concrete pilings, was a rope swing. The rope swing.

You can’t see it, but the rope was tied to the bridge just in front of the concrete piling, so in order to use the swing you had to jump out on a bit of an arc, dropping into the water just as you reach the peak of the arc.

It wasn’t a complicated maneuver, and I’m not afraid of heights or water, but for some reason on that day I could not bring myself to swing on that rope, despite desperately wanting to. I stood on the rocks, rope in hand, trying my hardest to will my body to jump. My mind said “Yes! Look at all the fun people are having, look at how easy it appears, how the little kids and older adults and everyone in between is doing it, I can do it too!” But my body was frozen, absolutely solid, and would not budge. I would think, “What’s the worst that could happen?” and the menacing little voice in the back of my head muttered:”You’ll hold on for too long and hit the rocks, or you won’t jump out far enough and you’ll hit the rocks. No one else has had a problem, but you will.” And that little voice kept on listing all the ways that I could make a mess of it and how bad it would be when I did.

In the end, defeated by my own treacherous self, I let go of the rope and climbed down. The people that had been watching my struggle sighed in disappointment, a tiny echo of what I felt inside. I spent the rest of the trip beating myself up over my cowardice, and fantasizing about having another chance to conquer my fear and enjoy that damned rope swing. For years after I would imagine flying back to Mexico, renting an ATV, and in a cloud of dust and determination, returning to the river and swinging on that swing like I knew I could.

Of course I didn’t fly back, but the experience stayed with me. Fast forward a few years, and the effect of the rope swing debacle has matured into something more useful – a resolution to stop getting in my own way. It has resulted in numerous small occasions where I pushed a little outside of my comfort zone and actually enjoyed myself.

This past fall I attended a voice workshop hosted by my yoga teacher, Asia Nelson, featuring a world-renowned opera singer, Kimberly Barber. She taught us about breath control, voice amplification, and how to be kind to your voice so that many hours of teaching and talking wouldn’t damage it. As part of the workshop, each of us had to sing a song of our choosing in front of everyone else, and Kimberly would give us individual feedback. That’s right, sing in front of a group of 20+ peers, and a video camera.

Due to a lot of small-scale decisions to be confident I don’t fear speaking in front of groups, and I like to sing, but my singing usually happens in the car, the shower, or the kitchen when no one but the cats and I are home. Like many people, the thought of singing in front of others induces pure dread into my heart and makes me shaky. I obsessed for weeks over the song I would choose and which part I would sing and what were the worst-case-scenarios if I sucked worse than I thought. I knew what was happening, so I prepared my short piece and vowed to go at the beginning so that I didn’t have to be nervous for any longer than possible. (I’m an eat-your-broccoli-first type of person.)

When the workshop finally arrived, and the moment came when Kimberly asked who was going to sing first … I froze. I sat in my seat, staring like a deer in headlights, and didn’t budge. I could almost feel the rope swing in my hands, see the river, feel the people watching. A battle of wills RAGED inside of me for what felt like minutes, and before I could move another broccoli-first classmate beat me to it. She got up, she sang, and she didn’t die. I watched, entranced, as Kimberly’s cues made her voice louder and clearer. She finished, we applauded, and it was time.

I launched out of my seat with enough force that I pushed it back a little and marched into the center of the circle. I introduced myself, then made a joke about wanting to have my turn at the beginning so that I would stop having to nervous-pee, then immediately regretted saying it which made me want to melt into the floor. Kimberly asked me to sing, and with a little quaking but without further ado, I did.

She asked me to sing it a few times at various speeds, do silly-looking facial movements and breath exercises, I forgot the tune at one point and my nervousness didn’t really let up, but by the end her cues really did help my voice get stronger and easier. Before I knew it my turn was up – I sat back down, and nearly passed out from excitement.

I had grabbed the rope and jumped! I felt positively elated and almost floated all the way home after it was all over, I felt like I could accomplish anything!

After thinking about it for a while, I’m convinced I really can. There are still situations that I haven’t mastered yet, but as those rope-swing moments appear in my life I will no longer allow myself to get in my own way, because I know what it feels like to truly lose an opportunity to do something great, or fun. I encourage you all to trust yourselves and take chances on things you want. Ask, what’s the worst that can happen? How likely is it to happen? What will I learn from it if I do fail? Is the worst-case really worse than never trying in the first place?

Then grab your rope and swing.

 

Eating the menu doesn’t cut it

As part of my 200 hr. Yoga Teacher Training, we have a hearty list of books to read. It’s a solid selection, from texts about physical anatomy and postures, to Iyengar’s autobiography ‘Light On Life‘, to Patanjali’s Sutras. I am enjoying them all, and there are many notes that I’ve taken down for to refer back to passages that I especially liked.

I will probably share more in the future, but the one that struck me today was from Jon Kabat-Zinn’s ‘Full Catastrophe Living‘, as he talks about mindfulness, stress-reduction, and not actually doing anything for patients, but instead showing patients how to do things for themselves. It reads:

“…cultivating mindfulness is not unlike the process of eating. It would be absurd to propose that someone else eat for you. And when you go to a restaurant, you don’t eat the menu, mistaking it for a meal, nor are you nourished by listening to the waiter describe the food. You have to actually eat the food for it to nourish you. In the same way, you have to actually practice mindfulness, by which I mean cultivate it systematically in your own life, in order to reap its benefits and come to understand why it is so valuable.”

I know, right? So simple, so obvious, but so incredibly not simple or obvious at the same time.

If you would like to read more about the mindfulness component, I highly recommend picking up a copy of ‘Full Catastrophe Living‘ for yourself, it looks big but is a very engaging read and easy to get through. I am going to relate this to fitness.

How many of us have fitness-related goals? Weight loss, strength, endurance, etc. How many of us have failed to achieve those goals in the time we wanted, despite our best intentions, Pinterest healthy recipe boards, new workout clothes, and gym memberships. Probably most of the folks reading this, myself included. Guilty!

I remember several years in a row thinking to myself that THIS will be the year that I get it all done. I would prep a space at home to work out when I wasn’t at the gym, buy a new top,.write out some workouts, try a new healthy recipe, schedule my workouts and actually complete a few as planned. I felt pretty good about all that, and then I got lazy and BAM, it’s 6 months later and I hadn’t made the progress I wanted.

What I have come to realize is that I was relying on all the good feelings of accomplishment from the preparation for the work towards my goals instead of actually focusing on the continuation of the work. It’s great to prepare, often essential, but you can’t stop there. It’s completely ridiculous when I think about it, but like many people I somehow confused writing down workout times in my planner with actually completing the workout.

So, what to do??? Step one: acknowledge that you’re doing it. It’s often the hardest part, so don’t worry if it’s difficult. Don’t let yourself be discouraged by thoughts of “If only I had actually gone to the gym all those times I meant to!” because that will bog you down in a horrible swamp of regret that not only stinks pretty bad it is hard to get out of. That’s not going to help you anyway, so try not to focus on those ‘should haves’ and move on.

Step two: Focus on the great feelings you have after getting to the gym or onto your yoga mat or out on a run. If you thrive on rewards then put a sticker in your planner on every completed workout. If you really need some extra motivation get a bunch of stickers to put throughout the week or keep a tally for every 10 or 15 minutes you spend making healthy meals or working out or whatever it is that will get you closer. I guarantee that after a little while of seeing shiny little stars all over your planner your dedication will feel way better than that new pair of leggings. Keep it up and all those little stars will manifest as progress towards your goals – real, tangible results. Stickers aren’t your thing? Put away $5 for a vacation, spa treatment, or whatever else works for you.

The point is, don’t rely on the process of preparing for your goals – you have to use the tools once you’ve gotten them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Imagine you are 12 years old

Recently I have had the pleasure of spending a few hours with a smart, spunky 12-year old named Margaret. Her mom, Kim, signed her up so they could spend some time together doing classes and since Kim trains with me twice a week already, she asked me to help Margaret get comfortable with the gym and working out. They have been delightful hours filled with silliness and laughter, and our initial workout ended up being one of the most profound sessions I have ever had.

The thing about mentoring a 12 year old girl in any capacity is that you end up contemplating the significance of every single thing you’re going to say, and how your words will impact the way she thinks and develops. This is especially true when you are responsible for helping to foster a healthy perception of her body and fitness. I’m sure that everyone reading this has struggled with insecurities about their looks or abilities, and to have the chance to make a young girl feel strong, confident, and empowered makes you want to try extra hard to give her a good head start.

After we finished our session and I was on my way home, it hit me. All of the things I was so careful not to say around Margaret because I didn’t think they were going to contribute to her healthy self-awareness are stories that I, and many women, tell ourselves and each other ever day.

Working your butt so that it looks good without appreciating how it helps you step up or jump or squat or back-bend; working your arms so that they don’t jiggle and look wide in pictures instead of being strong and able to push/pull you up or easily carry heavy things; eating to look slim instead of feeding your body wholesome things it can use to make healthy new cells and create energy you can use to accomplish wonderful goals.

We have come away from appreciating all of the incredible things that our bodies do for us on a daily basis and embracing the unique qualities that make us who we are – instead we have gotten good at comparison and finding aspects of ourselves that ‘need to be improved’. In doing that we attract others who view us and themselves in the same light and we don’t see the examples or get the support we need to break that cycle. Our unhappy selves look upon other happy, confident people jealously and with contempt.

I have an idea: the next time you get dressed, go to the gym, eat a meal, or generally think about yourself imagine that you have the opportunity to help that happy little 12-year old inside you live a life where she doesn’t look down upon herself and instead feels smart, confident, capable, and beautiful. It will take work to begin (think of how many years you’ve been in the habit of doing the opposite,) but once you start you will be amazed at how much better you will feel, and you will be able to keep it up. Eventually you will transfer it to others, and attract those who value themselves and you for the qualities that make each and every one of us who we are.

Am I saying that you should stop working towards goals? Nope. But evaluate what those goals are, why you have them. And most importantly practice ‘santosha’, contentment with who you are. Contentment, not complacency. Only when you accept yourself for who you are in the present moment will you start to see the happiness, progression, and success that you want. 🙂

 

Easy and delicious Greek-inspired dinner

Hello all! A quick and tasty post for now – my favourite easy dinner prep that will impress you with its flavour and simplicity (as long as you like Greek food.) It uses most of the same ingredients in each component, and I barely measure anything because it doesn’t have to be precise, it really comes down to how much lemon or garlic you like. You could also just use a Greek salad dressing to make it even easier!

I promise to get better at taking more progress pictures for future food blogs so you can see the steps, and also promise not to go on long rambly stories with a million pictures of the same thing so that you have to spend minutes scrolling down to the actual recipe. It’s all about balance. 😉

Step one: Chicken

Marinade 4 chicken breasts for however long you can, 20 minutes or 10 hours, either way it’s yummy. I really don’t think you can over or under-do it.

Place all the chicken in a baking dish and marinade with (roughly) 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/8 –  1/4 cup lemon juice (depending on how lemon-y you like it), 2 cloves of diced garlic, 2 tablespoons dried oregano and a teaspoon of parsley, freshly ground pepper, salt.

Chicken will cook for 40-45 minutes on 425 degrees F (when the chicken is cut and the juice runs clear.) You can also barbecue!

(Above – before and after cooking.)

Step Two: Taters

Amount depends on how many people you’re having, cut a bunch of small potatoes into one-inch pieces and put them in a baking dish. Use the exact same ingredients that you did for the chicken marinade, more or less the same quantity. (Again, I rarely measure.)

Potatoes will need to cook for about 50-60 minutes at 425 degrees F. (We often use the toaster oven for the potatoes since the big oven gets filled with weekly meal prep, so it would be around 60-70 minutes at 375 degrees F.)

Cover with tinfoil to start, remove for the last 15 minutes. Stir halfway to ensure delicious.

Step Three: Salad

Cut into a bowl: Tomato, green pepper, onion, cucumber, feta cheese, pitted Kalamata olives. Use (again!) the same chicken marinade as dressing, or get a little fancier with a legit Greek salad dressing. Optional to use cherry tomatoes, or add lettuce.

Step four: Graemetziki

This is my husband Graeme’s take on Tzatziki, and I have to say I like the chunks of cucumber better than having them grated, but the main difference is no dill or lemon zest.

Combine: 1 cup of yogurt, 3-4 inches of diced cucumber, 1-3 tablespoons of lemon juice (depends on how lemon-y you like it), 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 – 1 diced clove of garlic (or a couple of dashes of garlic powder), about a tablespoon each of oregano and parsley, couple dashes of salt pepper.

And that’s it! You’ve got a delicious go-to meal that is easy and flavourful. You can also make Greek-style rice to go with it, or add a toasted pita.

Enjoy! (Απολαμβάνω!)

(For more real tasty things, check out Jamie Oliver)

Tough conversations about food

I am often asked for a secret to resisting the temptation of foods that undermine fitness progress. Alas, there is no one quick trick for saying no to that (insert food here), but there is a process to eating healthy.

The first step is to arm yourself with as many tasty recipes that contain real food as possible. These meals should also be EASY for you to make and clean up after. You can check out my Pinterest account for some ideas, but if you can find recipes almost anywhere that fit the bill. (Slow cookers are ah-mazing for this purpose!) And to be clear, I don’t say ‘healthy’ to mean something that has no fat or sugar or salt or meat or dairy or grains, I mean meals that are comprised of items that are as close to the way they came out of the ground/off the animal as possible, with at the very least 40% veggies. It has to be something that tastes good otherwise you won’t put the effort into making it. Don’t kid yourself, one can only take so much kale.

And while it’s good to pay attention to your macro nutrients (protein, fats, carbohydrates,) you can take those steps later after you’ve got a regular routine of meal prep set. It’s also a good idea to find just a few meals to get comfortable with at a time if you’re new to cooking, that way you don’t have to juggle too many ingredients and processes. Remember, one thing at a time! Is cooking completely foreign to you? Find a local cooking class or spend some time on YouTube!

Once you’ve got step one and two nailed down and given yourself lots of healthy options for meals you have to stick to it, and there’s no easy way around it – you need to have tough conversations with yourself.

These often look something like the cartoons with an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. You will have to fight well established habits, and as soon as the angel has convinced you out of eating that cake, the devil will have aaaaall sorts of very logical-sounding reasons why you should eat just that one piece and then you won’t have any more later, promise. You know what’s going to happen if you do eat that cake, and you have to be ready to fight with yourself for a while because habits are hard to change, especially when they are a reaction to emotion. But remember, those goals are important to you!

You also have to be OK with the occasional slip up, and try not to focus on ‘all the progress that you could have made by now if only…’ Instead, focus on your successes! Write them down on sticky notes and put them around your house if you have to, because when you focus on the things you are doing well you will feel better and are more likely to carry on with those behaviors. Small, slow steps forward are always going to feel better than giving up all together!!!

You can help this process also by getting support from people around you and avoiding situations that will call for a tough conversation, for example not going down that aisle in the grocery store or telling friends that you would like to replace fries or icecream with smoothies, but you also have to go about your life without hiding away. Sometimes you can’t change a situation, but you can change how it makes you feel.

So be kind to yourself, keep up the good fight, and I promise after a while those old undesirable habits slowly degrade as they are replaced by the ones you want.

You ARE capable of creating the change you want! 🙂