81 // Identify Why You Fail: Truth Bombs for Building Sustainable Habits in 2023
Identify Why You Fail
Truth Bombs for Building Sustainable Habits in 2023
You know the last thing on most people’s mind at the end of the year? Sustainability.
Not in the environmental sense, but rather in how we eat, move, and nourish our bodies. The weight loss industry is expecting millions of people to failed at sustaining their goals from 2022, so you know what they will do? Try to sell you again.
That’s why, in this episode, we chat about:
What are sustainable habits for feeding your family
How do both achieve them and continue them
How to decide on which healthy habits you should adopt in 2023
We are halfway through Muffin Club and have already seen what a microcosm it is for using simple meal and snack ideas, setting up healthy systems, and operating in a sustainable way. Let this be the impetus to finding how you can start small yet make BIG strides in the upcoming year.
Listen to this episode of The Veggies & Virtue Podcast now!
Full Episode Transcription
Please note this a raw transcription. If something doesn’t read correctly, toggle to that timestamp in the show so that you can listen in on what was actually being said!
[00:00:00] You know, the last thing on most people's mind at the end of 2022, sustainability, And I'm not talking about the environmental sense because that honestly is probably more top of mind than what we're gonna be talking about today. I'm talking about the sustainability and how we eat, how we move, and how we nourish our body.
[00:00:17] By this point of the year, so many people have not achieved the health goals that they set out to at the beginning of 2020. And seeing that the end of the year is so quickly approaching and this January and New Year's resolutions will soon follow. A lot of us have just forgotten about what maybe we wanted to do, what we didn't continue to do, and this is what the weight loss.
[00:00:39] Pre on, they are expecting millions of people who failed at sustaining their goals from 2020 to let them go until the new year comes around and they're gonna try and sell us again. And that's why in this episode, before any guilt from the way that you've eaten over the holidays, sits in or before the diet industry, capitalizes on the new year and starts getting in your head about all these new tricks and pills and potions that you're gonna need to fit your goals.
[00:01:05] I would like to be in your ear and encourage. About how to create sustainable habits for your family. I want us to review what are some sustainable habits that you can achieve for your family? And how many should you even be considering starting the year 2023? I also wanna talk about how we both achieve these upfront early on in the new year.
[00:01:25] So we gain some momentum and we feel excited about the growth and the opportunity that we're seizing early on in the year. But how do we also continue these healthy habits as the year goes on so that we see we really. Developing more healthy habits as time goes on, and not seeking quick fixes for ourselves or formatting the way we feed our family in such a way that just isn't sustainable.
[00:01:55] Hey mama. I'm Ashley and welcome to the Veggies and Virtue Podcast. In this podcast, you'll find simple menu ideas, kitchen organizational systems spelled out for mom life, and feeding tips and tricks that are both evidence based in grace. I believe that you can find flexibility when it comes to feeding your family so that you can feel calm, capable, and connected in the kitchen.
[00:02:13] As a registered dietician and Christian mom of three myself, I want you to break free from the mealtime battles and to feel equipped while feeding your kids all day long. Pull up a stool at my kitchen counter and let me pour you a cup of coffee and say a quick prayer for you. It's time to chat about the meal times, messes moments, and ministry of motherhood.
[00:02:35] Now, I know I might ruffle a few feathers here, but I'm just gonna call it out as I see it. Do you know what these things or things like these things all have in common? When we talk about a three day cleanse, the ketogenic diet, in the context of how it's positioned nowadays, not in the clinical sense in which I know it bull 30 and approaches like this.
[00:02:56] I'm not combating them because I think that all juices are bad or these nutritional practices are all wrong, or that the approach in general is just worth. because that's not necessarily the case. But what I do find is that following some of these trends can be expensive. They can often feel all or nothing.
[00:03:16] And ultimately they are not sustainable for our lives, especially our lives as busy moms. And what I see happening with so many of the families I work with is that when we as moms fail to keep something up that we saw as really good and. Yet it was something that wasn't intended to be sustainable in the first place.
[00:03:37] We began criticizing ourself. We see ourself as a failure because we begin feeling frustrated, defeated, discouraged, and questioning can we even do this? And although this podcast is not geared specifically towards helping moms achieve their own health related goals, there's a lot of great podcasts intended for that, that I encourage.
[00:04:00] To check out, but I do wanna highlight how your perception of health and how your pursuit of healthy habits as we approach the new year, is shaping what your child grows up to know, and ultimately how your family is going to operate towards or away from health. In the upcoming year, and that's why in this episode, I really want us to talk about what are sustainable habits for your family and how do you go about achieving them and contin not only achieving them upfront, but also continuing them for the course that it serves your family to do so, and then thinking through what are some of those healthy habits that you might want to start 2023 with knowing that you want it to be something that's sustainable, that you're habit stacking over the months of the year, and not something that you're just jumping on a bandwagon.
[00:04:47] Upfront early on in the year only to find yourself feeling defeated, deflated, and discouraged that you can even do this amidst your real life. Because something I didn't mention before, but that I really should have is whether we're talking about, and again, I'm not trying to bash cleanses and Keto and Whole 30, while those are episodes in and of themselves, which I'm sure several of my colleagues who do focus more on the adult nutrition, Do and have covered.
[00:05:13] The challenge that I see and the implication I see in the scope of working with families and moms being such a key caretaker and ultimately nutritional gatekeeper is we're not looking at what we're doing as those things being flawed and those things. Failing us. We take that on ourself when we can't keep up this diet we're doing and when we can't execute this cleanse or this keto approach or whatever it is, the way it's quote unquote supposed to be done, and then that makes our own relationship with food begin to spiral and struggle and really not embrace and embody the sustainable habits for.
[00:05:58] That could most definitely help us as individuals and as women and as wives and as moms, but that could really shape a healthy future. Not just in January of 2023 or the first month of the new year, but then all months of the upcoming year and of all the years to come as we raise kids who have broken free from some of these lies that diet culture and ultimately the weight loss industry has fed us as we need.
[00:06:25] They're set up for us to fail so that we are forced to keep coming back to them and buying 'em again and again and again thinking that we are the. So what I want you to realize is you are part of the solution. You have the power to change how your family eats in the upcoming year, but you have to choose the right habits.
[00:06:45] It's not a quick fix. It's not a product that's gonna promise an easy win. It's you committing to taking the steps to sustainable habits that are going to help your family find the right stride to take the steps or to following the path in making the progress. That you want to see in the upcoming year.
[00:07:07] You want simple, healthy, kid approved meal and snack ideas, but you're feeling tired of scrolling, social screenshoting, a recipe idea, repeating ideas only to feel annoyed that your inspiration rarely leads to execution. As moms, I know we want to offer nourishing variety to our kids, but how do we get away from offering the same few foods on repeat?
[00:07:27] When the busyness of our lives demands routine, Friend, I get you and I understand the. Because as a busy moment of three myself, I have had to spend years finding the strategies and the systems to simplify meal times. Some of you may remember that before my son was born, I shared a simple idea that I was going to start remaking muffins in anticipation for my postpartum muffins, for something that I knew our family could enjoy any hour of the day or night.
[00:07:51] And by pre-selecting healthy recipes to make. Freeze. I knew that this was one simple habit stack that I could actually achieve, even when very pregnant with two extra little kids helping in the kitchen. Fast forward four years later, and this is still something that you all ask me about again and again and again.
[00:08:08] Tens of thousands of you have joined me over the years for Muffin Club as we bake together and spend time. Lightning our mental lot as moms one small sustainable habit at a time. I would love to have you come join me for this year's muffin Club, taking off November 11. All you need to do to sign up is to go to veggies.com/muffin club.
[00:08:28] It's going to be really simple recipes with ingredients that you already have on hand, including all of my family's favorite seasonal flavors of mine, things like pumpkin, apple, and cranberry orange. So be sure to get signed up@veggiesandvirtue.com slash.
[00:08:47] So what are sustainable habits for feeding your family? Because especially as we get to the beginning of a new year, it's really easy for us to think of the dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of hundreds of things that we could do that are healthy habits. However, we need to recognize we can't do all of them at once, because unless you are planning to become some neo plant in a ninja, Or picky eating expert or just gourmet chef in the kitchen who just all of a sudden has all this newfound capacity.
[00:09:18] You need to ask yourself if, and what in your life is going to change to allow for all these new skill sets to grow. Because even as a dietician, I can look at over the last decade of becoming a wife and a mom, and then a mom of, you know, one to two to three kids, and the stage that we're at now, and see how these habit.
[00:09:37] Have become sustainable and how I have ultimately come up with them, but not all at once. So when you're asking yourself what sustainable habits for feeding your family you want to be considering and ultimately creating a plan for in the upcoming year, I want you to prayerfully consider how you're envisioning your year.
[00:09:58] You know, I often share that every year for the last maybe four years, I've done a word of the. I'll share what my word of the year. The Lord's already given it to me for this year, which I'm so thankful for. Sometimes I feel like I pray for weeks and weeks on it, and this year it came really quickly and I've continued to pray over it and found a lot of confirmation in what my year or my word for the year in 2023 is.
[00:10:17] But I know for some people it might be a Bible verse that just gives them some direction for you as a family, you might come up with, you know, what your resolution for the upcoming year is as a family. That gives some sort of context or an overarching theme. To guide what you want the upcoming year to look like.
[00:10:35] So when we talk about what are sustainable habits for feeding our family, I want you to realize that something that makes it sustainable by definition is that you are not doing everything. That's just not realistic. And so you need to narrow down what is most important to your family right now, and that is going to help narrow down the hundreds, if not dozens or whatever, you know, large list that maybe comes to you, maybe brained up all those things that you would love big picture, but then take a step back and maybe see that all of those things or are on your five or your 10 year goal.
[00:11:08] But when you really hone in on this year and aligning with what God has for you and your family, this. That falls within the context of what your word of the year is, or your Bible verse for the year, or your family, you know, goal for the year is. Then you can begin to see what habits align with that and what habits are going to stay consistent with that and which habits are ultimately going to compliment.
[00:11:36] And not compete. Because then as the year goes on and every shiny opportunity that comes up that you think of like, Oh, we should try this, or, Oh, we should do this. All those new habits that are, that are in and of themselves, maybe great habit, you could all of a sudden run through the filter of, does this help me exercise the muscle of building more, Fill in the blank of growing more.
[00:11:55] Fill in the blank of cultivating more, fill in the blank. And if the answer is no, it doesn't necessarily mean don't do it. It just means don't get distracted by it. But if we can look at what is a sustainable habit for us up front at the beginning of the year, I think we will stay the course a lot longer because we will see that it aligns with the big picture.
[00:12:20] So, Halfway through the year, and maybe I should do an episode, you know, six months into the year on this. But then especially at the end of the year, we don't have that feeling of feeling discouraged and defeated, that we didn't make progress in any area of our life or in reaching any of our health goals or in making any progress in how we feed our families.
[00:12:40] Because we kept hopping around from one thing to the next, but instead we see that because we stuck with healthy habits and we weren't just after a quick win and we didn't just hop to the next thing when we weren't seeing the easy results come, but we stuck it out. I think you'll see that as we've talked about before with Muffin Club being a microcosm, we see that we begin to habit stack.
[00:13:04] So I want you to really prayerfully consider what might that sustainable habit be for you? This. Maybe you only see what the first one is, what the tip of the iceberg is. Because looking at something like Muffin club is really the tip of the iceberg, but it begins to show you what is a sustainable habit.
[00:13:20] This is making one batch of healthy muffins one time a week. Is that gonna help you accomplish all of your nutritional goals? No, because the recipe is honestly not even relevant to what those goals are, but it's coming up with a sustainable habit. And empowering you in doing so, that it gives you the confidence you can do this.
[00:13:40] And it might be starting with something as seemingly small and simple as making one healthy muffin recipe a week. But then as you do that, however it falls in line with the overarching goal for your year that you have, You begin to habit sac and you begin to create additional sustainable habits that build into that big picture goal that you and your family have for the.
[00:14:00] But you're not just a boarding mission when this recipe didn't work, and this approach, you know, flopped and you just feel like a failure defeated. So we wanna think about how do we achieve these sustainable habits and how do we continue them? For one, if you're doing Muffin Club, congratulations, you have made it halfway through.
[00:14:19] And the consistency and the commitment you have to just continuing to stay the course and continuing to challenge yourself and take baby steps outside of your comfort zone and out of your autopilot realm of operation and how you normally would do things to begin to try and do things a little bit differently.
[00:14:36] You're not trying to do everything differently at once. You're trying to do one thing differently, and because you're not just blindly reaching your arm in a grab bag of healthy idea. For feeding your family. You're seeing that you're mastering some of these things that, some of the things that felt intimidating upfront.
[00:14:54] Maybe it was making healthy snacks when you were used to just offering prepackaged ones, and now you find what that balance is that fits for your family, but now you realize I can make one healthy thing a week. Maybe it's getting your kids in the kitchen and helping them explore food that they otherwise might be learning to like, and just coming over that hurdle of the anxiety that can often come.
[00:15:16] Having kids in the kitchen and the messes that ensue. Maybe it's the process of planning ahead to know that you have the groceries and the ingredients on hand. Not because they're specialty, but because they're just staples and you're working on just having healthy things within arms reach so that you can create these healthy options as time allows and as inspiration comes.
[00:15:39] So when we're looking at achieving them and continuing them, we wanna look at how we. Habit stack and how we begin this continuity of doing the same thing or a very similar thing over and over and over until it begins coming a little easier. So if you're asking yourself what healthy habits, where do you even start with 2023, and how do you even begin to think what healthy habits you might want to start the year with?
[00:16:04] I want you to first just pause and if you're a believer and you feel comfortable praying, I would encourage you to just pause and. And just still your heart. I normally have like a little notepad next to me for all my squirrly thoughts that try and distract me from just slowing my mind and being still and in the presence of God to pray over a year.
[00:16:25] If that's not something you've ever done or not yet done for this upcoming year, I would just encourage you to start that process. It can be really quick and simple at first, but I think as we take that posture of having no idea what the upcoming year. But knowing at our in our heart, what we hope for and what we long for, but do not see, we can begin to just have this posture before God that he knows, he knows what's in the year ahead and he knows what he has for you and your children and your family.
[00:16:52] And as we bring it back to the context of what is sustainable, and at the very definition of that, what we are able to maintain at a certain rate or level in the upcoming year. We don't know what pace life is gonna operate at. We know what pace that operates at. Right. . But the reality is, is that pace of life rarely slows down, and in order for us to have goals that we go after without ending in this feeling that is frustrated and defeated, that is not God's intent for our family or feeding our families, then we need to begin to think about what makes something sustainable, is being able to uphold it and defend it amidst our real life as mom.
[00:17:36] and so I want you to just take that posture and to pray in a way that positions yourself being open to any possibility. You might look at Muffin Club as the microcosm it is to ask yourself what about it has made it sustainable? If you have been able to do it for the three weeks and you have been able to make it to this halfway point, what has made that sustainable?
[00:18:00] And if you haven't yet done the three recipes that have been sent out, how come, not because I'm pressuring you or guilting you or bringing any bit of shame, but we wanna bring these into the light and address what makes this sustainable? What makes this something that we can maintain amidst our real life?
[00:18:17] What is this? How is this a habit that we feel able, equipped, and encouraged to uphold and defend OITs life's demand? Because this Muffin Club is not intended to break you down or burden you with an excessive number of ideas. It's not a Pinterest sport. It's not an exhaustive list of recipes. It's not something that is going to, in and of itself, change your family's whole relationship with food.
[00:18:45] But if you can begin to stop the rat race, surrender the habits that you do really want to harness for your family, and begin to step into that role. In the process of sometimes just lacing up day after day, taking one step further week after week, and gaining your strides month after month, you're gonna look back at the end of the year and you're gonna say, Man, you did it.
[00:19:13] You made progress. You positioned your family for good. You're gonna feel more confident. Your kids are going to be more compet. And you're going to continue to build those healthy habits for life that I know that you really want and that your kids really need.
