Blabbing About: Getting Our Vitality On

Expert advice from cool, nice people who know what they're talking about

I’m the first person to tell you life is all about balance — and by that I mean, balancing your glass of wine and your slice of pizza. But actually, I do really value movement and it’s taken me a looooooooong time to understand that exercise isn’t a punishment for eating poorly, and that it’s something I get to do that makes me happy.

Tonight I had the chance to learn even more tools about this whole “wellness” ish we talk about at nauseam and it was the most refreshing convo I’ve heard about women’s health in YEARS. Hosted at DanceBody, the founder, Katia, was joined by two badass experts: Dr. Rachel Goldman (PhD Psychologist, Speaker, Consultant) and Jaclyn London, MS, RD (Media Dietitian & CPG Food Consultant). I’m going to cut the fluff and give you my 8 favorite things I learned.

1. Don’t cut out one thing and expect a massive result: All of the fads we’ve seen about cutting out sugar or cutting out one specific food group are not going to work. Your diet is all connected, a wholistic approach is the only way for change.

2. BREAKFAST BABY!!!!! Big cereal wasn’t lying, breakfast is the most important thing to add to your routine to see real results. The more fuel you give your body in the morning the less time we’re spending in the snack cabinet at night — it’s as simple as that.

3. Food noise is less when you don’t restrict: “Food noise” has been a hawt topic lately (and we all know why), but the bottom line is that the little voice in your head (which someone in the audience hilariously called the “itty bitty shitty committee”) will be less talkative if you don’t tell yourself NO all the time. The “when did I last eat, when can I eat again, should I have a snack” voices in our heads will STFU if we just listen to our bodies and eat when and what we want to eat (within reason ofc).

4. Associate movement with joy: You know the saying “a little something is better than nothing,” and that is so true when it comes to movement. But “moving” or “exercising” tends to have a negative connotation. The best way to get excited about (or at least not complete dread) movement is to attach it to something that gives you joy. My version of this? Walking on the treadmill while catching up on Bravo on my iPad. Works like a charm girlies!

5. More protein, more water: We all need more protein in our lives if we’re moving more, but that means you NEED more water. [insert me telling you to get on the HYDROJUG train lol]

6. Flip the mindset: Instead of going through all the things you DIDN’T do that day, give it a shot to go through all the things you DID do. Seems silly at first, but in the long run, it’s a huge weight lifter. (i.e., instead of “I didn’t work out today” maybe it’s “I walked instead of took an Uber today”)

7. Photo dump? No, brain dump: I know it can’t just me who runs through my to do list and my thoughts as soon as my lil head hits the pillow at the end of the day. They recommended a brain dump — in a notebook or in your notes app — to get it alllllllllll out of your head onto something tangible and your brain will calm the swirling.

8. Staircase it! The staircase approach is truly just baby steps. The example they used was if you don’t run regularly, you can’t run a marathon tomorrow, so start smaller. Seems simple, but it’s so important to a bunch of things in your life. For me, I never eat in the morning before a workout and I know I need to start, so I’m going to take some baby steps on this to try to fit in a little spoonful of PB or a banana to ease into it.

All in all, we love balance and I was just so pumped that these literal experts gave such tactical, level-headed suggestions that feel simple, doable, and not extreme.

10/10 ladies, consider me influenced!