What's up and welcome back to Talking Nutrition. Once again, a quick episode from Oso Airport in the lounge. So I wanted to speak to self -reflection today, which is maybe way less fitness, nutrition related, but very important and often overlooked. I think a lot of times we focus a little too much even on the food side of things and exercise, which is weird for me to say. Like I'm a health and fitness coach. Like nutrition is the main thing we do with our people, you know. But I still do think that it shouldn't just be food and exercise. And of course, you know, steps and those kind of things. But the true growth happens up here, right, in between your ears. And I think it's often overlooked. I think, you know what, it's often the easy way out for coaches and PTs not to address this with you, to only give you a meal plan, to only give you a cookie cutter thing where... It's one of those apps where you automatically get your recipes updated based on your macros. And that's not bad per se, but if it's only that, if it's only the meal plan, if it's only that, right, here, eat these, a couple meals basically, without any addressing your actual day -to -day, when it comes to what's going on in your mind, we're not gonna be successful long -term. Because if we do not address the mindset, we're gonna struggle with self -control, with willpower. We're not gonna be able to call ourselves out on our shit, which is where, hey, I will say this, if you have a coach and they're a good coach, they will call you out on your shit too. And they will give you the tough love when it's necessary. But they will also push you, right, without the tough love, but to really dive into what's going on, what you're running into, what's maybe something we need to explore a little bit more. So today we're going to talk about self-reflection. Now, of course, if you need more help with this, I think the mindset component is probably one of the biggest when it comes to our coaching, right? That's where we make the biggest breakthroughs. I am still giving away six months of nutrition coaching for free. The only thing you have to do is go to the show notes, my Instagram profile, there's one big post. It says it's pinned, right? It says nutrition coaching giveaway. All you got to do is comment, win, tag a friend. and then I will send a quick application form just to kind of learn about your goals and why you should win really and why you want to work with us because it's a big giveaway and I really want to make sure that this is going to be the right fit. So I'm going to ask you to take action for that. But if you need more help with this, this is what we can dive into for six months straight if you would like that, right? For free. So why not at least give it a shot, right? Head over to my Instagram. Comment. tag a friend, I'll get back to you. Now, let's briefly break it down here though, because I think it's something, like I said, it's overlooked, it's something people don't address because it is more uncomfortable than changing your eating habits and getting to the gym. And I'm not saying that those things are not difficult, right? They can be. But in my opinion, self -reflection is one of the most important practices when it comes to personal growth. And one of the most effective ways to engage in self -reflection is through journaling. Now I'm sharing this because, not because I think everyone needs to do it all the time, but because I've personally had a lot of benefit from this and I've seen a lot of growth. And I've had the biggest breakthroughs mindset -wise from these kind of sessions where I did put stuff on paper, where I did meditate. And as... And Frank said, paper has more patience than people. If you want to actually figure things out, you know, when it comes to your mindset, and you want to actually work through your demons, because we all have, you know, our downsides. If you want to work through your insecurities, through things you really struggle with, put it on paper. And this is not for anyone to read, right? This is for you to just get it out. You could use a phone and those kinds of things, but look, honestly, like get a paper planner. grab a pen and actually put your pen to paper. I think that's always going to be best. I don't know if there's science and research on this, but I can almost guarantee there is going to be a difference. And I think because it's almost a little bit more work for you to actually write it out instead of typing, I think it's going to translate more. I actually think, and I will be looking into this after this podcast, maybe should have done this before. No, but all joking aside, like I really think the act of putting pen to paper, sitting with it longer, because it takes a little bit longer, right? It's going to do the most for you. Because getting your thoughts and feelings and problems and experiences out of your head, on the paper, can really help you create more self -awareness, manage stress, release and process emotions. And this is a big one too. It allows you to create distance between the problem and where you're currently at and you actually... zooming out and viewing things objectively. It can also promote feelings of gratitude if you get more into gratitude journaling. This is one that took me many, many months before it actually showed. So I will ask you this, if you get into journaling, give yourself lots of time for it to take effect. Let me quickly check where my flight is. Okay, I've still got 30, I've got 45 minutes still until morning. We've got plenty of time. I get a delay. Okay, all good. But I'm joking aside. With the journaling, it's gonna take time. When it comes to gratitude journaling, which could literally be like every day you just write down three things you're thankful for, I started noticing this in random moments like months down the road. Where, and this sounds maybe like kind of like, you know, woo woo out there, whatever, but I felt a feeling of appreciation for like the smaller things, you know what I mean? I went on a walk, it was a nice sunny day and I legit felt grateful that it was such a nice day. Which sounds weird, you know, if you think about it, because like we barely do that, we barely actually appreciate these little things. You might even be listening to this and be like, this is not for me. Trust me, like try these kind of things out. I would have never expected myself to journal, meditate, and those kind of things. And here we are. And I can promise you that for me personally and what I've seen also among other people, peers, friends, clients, right? This is the stuff that really gets you to true growth. Now, what I like too is with journaling, you do get to self assess your daily effort as well. You're going to be more proactive as well. You're more in the moment. You don't go about your week without really being in the moment and really thinking, right? Hey, let me actually sit down and reflect on today. This allows you to realize your strengths also, as well as your weaknesses. But when you catch yourself and you can point it out to yourself, you can do something with it. That's the whole point. We're not here asking you to judge yourself or to beat yourself up. There is something to be said for calling yourself out on your shit, like I said, but really just being objective and honest with yourself. So there's two moments when I like to do journaling and I'm not gonna tell you you have to do both. I'm just gonna suggest, hey, play around with this. Maybe try it in the morning, try it in the evening, do both, do whatever you wanna do. But if you wanna start with a morning journaling session, make sure you have a little bit of time, could be five minutes. Don't overthink it, it can be literally five minutes. If you wanna get into this, invest those five minutes. You can set the alarm five minutes earlier, you're not even gonna notice, you know? That's not to take away from your busyness, of course, right? But can we do that five minutes, 10, whatever? Starting the day off by filling your own cup, but also creating the right intention or setting the right intention and being clear on what needs to happen. So a couple of things you can ask yourself. I'm gonna just kind of name a few here and then you just say, cool, I'm gonna play around with this one. This one doesn't really apply for me. But think about this, right? So what tasks? Do you need to get done? What I like to do is like one big goal for the day and then maybe like three other important ones and then the rest is, you know, I'll do like maybe five like quicker tasks that I wanna, you know, check for my list. But anything else is bonus. But even if you just start with that one, what's the number one most important thing? Start there. Number one task for yourself. And then maybe three more important ones, right? Which challenges may come up if I know I'm going to have a busy day coming up, right? I already know that ahead of time, I can prepare for that. Now, what am I looking forward to? That's a huge one too. This kind of plays more into gratitude. That being said, what things are you grateful for? Write down three things. And then of course, how will you just get better by 1 %? That's one of my biggest questions that I ask myself on a daily basis, weekly basis. monthly basis, right? How can you get a little bit better? It's not about perfection, but like what can you do to just upgrade like a tiny bit, you know? And what promise will you make yourself for today? When you start your day, like how will you, right, go about this day? And then what can you tell yourself to boost focus and confidence? I do think as much as I'm not the biggest one, the biggest person when it comes to affirmations, I think there's a time and place for it. It's just not something I do a lot of, but hey, it works for certain people. If you need that boost of confidence, tell yourself you can do it. Again, without being weird about it, I really think we can just be honest and have these conversations with ourselves. It's not weird because you're doing it by yourself anyway, right? So you might as well just try it out. Now in evening, it's way more about reflection and a little bit about prepping for the next day. But ask yourself these questions. And this is a huge one. I think with the actual reflection here, this is where you get to really be honest and open with yourself and really address, hey, have my efforts actually reflected my intentions, my goals? If your goal is this big, ambitious, like 10 to 20 kilo weight loss journey, yet your effort is kind of, you know, eh. two out of five, okay, that needs some addressing then. I think we need to look in the mirror. Did you do the things you said you would? Hey, in the morning you created a to -do list, did you get it done? And then without judging yourself, like first just look at, hey, did it get done? Yes or no? If not, okay, why not? Did you show up as the best version of yourself? How did you treat others? Were you kind of being a little nasty, right? Or were you kind of nice to them? Any big takeaways? Any lessons learned? What can I do better next time? All great questions, right? I think it's way less about judging yourself and just saying, hey, you know, like if that same thing comes up tomorrow, like what will I do differently? And is there anything, of course, for tomorrow already that I can plan ahead for? Self -awareness is very key. I think a lot of times we skip these things. The planning for the day, the self-reflection, the... actually being honest with ourselves because it does feel uncomfortable, right? But I'm gonna quote Donald Robertson here from his book How to Think Like a Roman Emperor. And he said, sometimes it's necessary to interrupt the things you're doing out of habit so that you can ask yourself whether they're actually healthy or unhealthy for you in the long run. This is where that comes in. When you stop yourself and you actually, right, you have that moment of reflection or planning, you ask yourself those questions, you break that pattern, you interrupt the things you're doing out of habit. so that you can actually see whether this is healthy or unhealthy for you in the long run. So finally, of course, throughout the day, you also want to keep your attentions and to do top of mind and be aware and pay attention. So we've done the reflection, right? We've created those moments where we actually interrupt and reflect where we're at. During the day, you still want to have a little reminders. I'm a big fan of sticky notes, for example, just quick stuff. It works, right? And this data routine really helps you stay on top of things. your thoughts, your feelings, your actions, and it keeps you engaged with your goals. Because here's one thing, if you set the intention for the week, that's all great, but you know how busy it gets. You know how hectic it gets. If you set a certain intention and then by Sunday you're like, yeah, by the way, I kind of said I wasn't going to do this thing, but I kind of never follow up on it. That's why we do these daily reflections. Now, even just creating the habit of actually doing it, like actually sitting down and putting it on paper, what do you want to do in the morning or evening, or even both, even just that, it's going to take time to get to that point. It's even going to take time for you to fully get it when it comes to journaling. Like I said, two months for me to really start to notice the gratitude journaling. Just to be honest with you, in the beginning I was like, this is not doing anything for me. I'm not noticing anything. But then it started to show up in real life. And when you keep doing this, and again, I can promise you this, but it takes work. It really takes work. It takes multiple months of work before you even start to see it. But if you do this work, you're gonna see benefit come from it. You're gonna see self -improvement. But that's only gonna come from... you being brutally honest with yourself and really sitting down and working through your feelings. And I know this is way more, right, mindset than fitness and, you know, food. But we need to address the mindset for you to be able to stick to your nutrition, to stick to your workout plan, to deal with the sad backs because they will come up. You can't act like it's not gonna happen, you know what I mean? There's not gonna be a perfect meal plan for you. and any PT or coach or whatever, any program that will create the perfect plan for you, right? They're setting you up for failure if you do not get to work on a mindset piece. So that's why I really wanna double down on mindset. That's why in our 12 week course for our clients, our clients going, I mean, right from the start, right from the very beginning, they go through multiple mindset lessons, right? Sure, the biggest change is to be honest with you. our nutrition. We really break down their meals, how to eat healthy consistently, allowing for flexible moments. We dive into social settings and of course training, lifestyle, those kind of things like sleep stress management. But basically every module in what's called the Odyssey, the 12 week course, includes a mindset component. That's how important this is. We're doing a lot of self -reflection. We're asking ourselves these questions. We're doing a lot of planning. We're setting these intentions for the day, for the week, et cetera. And we're making sure that we go proactively throughout your day, week, month journey. So again, if you haven't yet, I highly recommend you signing up for the six month nutrition coaching giveaway. Again, it's nuts for me to even bring this up. Now by the time this episode is going to be up, it will be, let me see quickly, just a little peek on my calendar. So this is gonna be Monday 24th. Yeah, so in two days, by the end of Monday, sorry, Wednesday the 26th, the giveaway will close. So you only have two more days to act and to really make sure, or sorry, three, but to act on this opportunity. So go ahead over to my Instagram in the description, it's gonna say the pin post, sorry, my Instagram of course, you go to the pin post, it's gonna say comment, win, and then tag a friend, that's all you gotta do. I will send you a quick application form, it's gonna allow us to really just address if you are a good candidate, and then maybe, maybe. July 1st I will announce you as a winner. So head over and like I said we do a lot of mindset work we dive into these kind of things we install these healthy habits and as uncomfortable as it can be it's also one of the most important things you can do. So I hope you learned something new I hope this kind of pushed you to go to the bookstore and get a journal and a pen and start journaling. Don't overthink it. Now if you need more help either you win the the giveaway and I can help you with that directly. Or you just let me know, just hit me up on Instagram. I can give you some prompts specific to what you would need for your journaling session. But I think today we covered a lot of good ones already. So play around with that, try it out, and of course if you haven't yet, start journaling. If you need more help, reach out. If you want six months of coaching, you only got three more days to act. So head over to my Instagram, comment win, tag a friend, I'll talk to you there.